At last year’s WWDC event, Apple made waves by announcing its first smart speaker, called HomePod. The company’s smart speaker quickly gained its popularity among users and tech experts worldwide. With the launch of HomePod, Apple will compete directly with big names like Amazon Echo and Google Home on the market.
Amazon Echo ranks among the best smart speakers out there, thanks to its innovative features. According to reports, Amazon Echo now dominates the smart speaker market, while Google Home is closing the gap. Apple undoubtedly has a lot of work to do to overthrow Echo and Google Home in the coming months.
Apple HomePod is falling behind its competitors out there due to lack of important features and its limited availability. Apple has been trying to expand HomePod’s presence in more markets. The Cupertino company took a big step to achieve that goal when the company announced the final build of iOS 11.4.
With iOS 11.4 software update, HomePod officially supports more languages, including Canadian English, French, and German, hinting at a possible release of HomePod in those markets. Apple has not made any official announcements, but the HomePod will hit new markets this year.
Apple’s smart speaker is now available in the US, UK, and Australia. We are expecting a wider rollout of the speaker in the coming months. HomePod’s main rival, Amazon Echo is available in more than 30 countries and the number’s set to grow in the future.
Apple has never announced how many HomePod the company has sold out there. However, tech experts say that the company already shipped more than 600 thousand units in the first quarter of the year, which is pretty impressive.
With the iOS 11.4 update, you now can pair two HomePod speakers at the same time and use them as a single speaker. The HomePod now works perfectly with Apple Siri, allowing users to play songs on all speakers across the house with their voice commands.
However, it remains unknown when the HomePod will hit those markets, but sources say that the smart speaker will arrive soon this year. Let’s wait and see.
Also read: iOS 11.4 finally here: Here are all new features and changes
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