Apple's HomePod goes back down to its lowest ever price, hinting at impending sequel
The conditions of the deal/s may have changed since the initial publishing of this post.
It's no big secret that Apple's rookie smart speaker effort has flopped pretty hard, failing to propel the Cupertino-based tech giant among the top five global vendors in a thriving market comfortably dominated by Amazon. But at the same time, it's also fairly obvious that the HomePod is not an inherently bad product, which is why we're not at all surprised to hear a sequel of sorts will reportedly be released at last in the near future.
We've actually been hearing rumors about a possible second-gen HomePod and/or a lower-cost variant for a long time, although if you're excited by the latter prospect, you may not want to wait anymore. That's because the 2018 edition is officially a low-cost model now, fetching an extremely reasonable $199.99... yet again.
Check out the deal here
This is a match for the smart speaker's lowest ever price, representing a cool $100 markdown from its current $299.99 MSRP. That is itself 50 bucks lower than the HomePod's original $350 price, which was permanently discounted a little over a year ago.
The renewed deal is exclusively available from Best Buy in both space gray and white color options, substantially undercutting Apple's unchanged $299 price and B&H's much smaller current discount to $280 and up. To further put the $199.99 tag in perspective, keep in mind that the Google Home Max still goes for $299 at the time of this writing, while Amazon's Echo Studio costs... exactly $199.99.
In case you're wondering, it's hard to say if the Apple HomePod is objectively superior to its direct Google Assistant and Alexa-controlled rivals. While Siri is undoubtedly less capable and versatile, the hardware is pretty cool, with outstanding audio quality in tow, as well as an undeniably chic design. Last but not least, if you're already invested in Apple's ecosystem, you'll definitely find this bad boy useful for hands-free music streaming, HomeKit controls, and AirPlay functionality.
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