I have my doubts but 
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Neat. I suppose, if it releases, Big HomePod 2.0 won’t have the same room-adjusting, wide sweet-spot auto-configuration as the original. I thought that tech was impressive, but I’m guessing it didn’t help the margins, even at $350, and wouldn’t be surprised if it contributed to the fragility some have experienced.
The article seems to presuppose that it will have audio as good as the original, and that Apple somehow just figured out a way to knock $100 or more off the price point.
Keeping in mind that Apple’s primary product strategy is to sell high-margin products that meet the needs of large swaths of people. There are certain high-end products that don’t fit that mold, but “portable speaker” doesn’t seem to be the sort of thing that would be an exception.
I’m probably not be the target market, but I’m wondering how many people are even willing to pay $200 or $250 (and double that for stereo, which lots of people say is important) for a HomePod.
It just doesn’t feel like the sort of market that Apple seeks out - but maybe they have something interesting up their sleeves?
I guess we’ll see. I didn’t interpret the “similar sound” part of the article the same way. I think (unfortunately) that most people just want the displacement volume of the larger HomePod, and wouldn’t value the room detection features. Until Apple released the Mini, I was hoping they would keep pushing those advanced features over multiple product releases, to change the expectations of the smart speaker market, so that it would support the prices required to earn their desired margin.
The Mini was a concession that Amazon’s low-cost-adequate-sound strategy had been much more successful shaping the market. The market’s perception that any of these smart speakers sound fine in any room is too strong to sell a speaker that fixes the problem of smart speakers not sounding good out of the box.
I would love to be wrong because I have two original HomePods and basically want more of the same with an updated chip, touch screen and sound field optimization in groups of 3+ speakers.
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Gurman says “similar sound”, whereas this article seems to think that Apple’s goal is going to be “the same sound-quality, and the same beam-forming technology” at the $249/$199 price point.
If they get rid of the room detection stuff, yeah - I could see it getting a lot cheaper.
Out of curiosity, what would you max out at price-wise? Would you be fine with $349, or would you be expecting less-expensive ones?
Ah, I see. Sorry about that. I jumped straight to what Gurman said. I would be surprised if the 9to5 writer had any additional insight. But again, happy to be wrong. As far as price point, I could see myself buying three for $1200 for the use I have in mind, if they were to work together as well as I dream of. If they’re just big HomePod Minis, $300 in 2022 dollars seems reasonable at launch and I’d probably just get one. I agree people are going to want to pay less than what I’d pay.