HomePod Mini Did Very Little to Increase Apple’s Share in Smart Speaker Market

BY Mahit Huilgol

Published 4 Aug 2021

It is no secret that Apple HomePod never really sold well. Some blame it on the higher price, while others attribute it to the limitations. Earlier this year, Apple discontinued HomePod to make way for the affordable HomePod mini. The latest report from CIRP reveals in detail about US smart speaker market for June.

The report highlights Amazon and Google’s dominance over the smart speaker market in the US. HomePod mini arrived in November last year. However, Apple decided to offload HomePod stocks till May this year. HomePod mini is positioned to grab market share from Google and Amazon. Many presumed that those comfortable with the Apple ecosystem would prefer HomePod mini as opposed to the competition.

The CIRP report shows how little of an impact HomePod mini has made. Amazon has the largest market share at 69%, while the Echo devices account for nearly 20%. Meanwhile, the US smart speaker has hit 126 million in June 2021. Apple HomePod market share stands at less than 10%.

Talking numbers, the HomePod has registered a marginal Year-on-Year growth to 7-million units. However, HomePod lags behind miles when compared with Amazon and Google’s smart speakers. The report reveals how Amazon and Google have enticed users to buy multiple units. Both the companies encouraged users to set up multiple units with each in every room. Furthermore, the aggressive pricing and promotions have fuelled the growth.

Both Amazon and Google encouraged users to buy multiple units, through pricing and promotions. Each brand wants to establish a position in a household, with units in every room. This seems to work, as about one-third of owners have multiple units, and almost 10% of Echo users have three or more. The strategy of a very low-priced smart speaker encourages users to try one, and then add more as they get comfortable with the concept. While HomePod does have a modest share of the installed market, it’s not large enough to allow us to analyze number of units per owner in our sample.

[via CIRP]