Steve Jobs was already on a roll when he took the stage at Macworld on January 9th, 2007 to introduce iPhone. By the end of that day, the iPhone was the leading story on the nightly news, and everyone was talking about the new device. And while the iPhone would turn out to be a product that changed the world, the touchscreen handset's predecessor, the Apple iPod, proved to be a big hit as it sold 450 million units before Apple stopped selling the product in 2022.
Apple has had some products fail to catch on
But not every device created by Apple has been a hit. There was the Newton, the personal digital assistant (PDA) that used a stylus and could recognize your handwriting. While the Newton was arguably ahead of its time, the handwriting recognition worked poorly. At $699, the product was too expensive and Jobs killed it. However, the ARM based processor Apple funded and developed for Newton led to the creation of Apple's A-series and M-series processors and most smartphones run on ARM-based processors.
Many of the engineers working on Newton ended up working on the teams that created the operating systems for the iPod and iPhone. Other features such as the app-based layout and gestures based on touch all were first found on the Newton.
Even in the post iPhone period, Apple released a series of hit products
Apple has had a number of hit products that followed the release of the iPhone. There was the iPad, of course, the Apple Watch, AirPods and AirTags. One product that has not been a smash hit like the aforementioned items is the HomePod. This was Apple's version of Amazon's Echo which created the smart speaker category and owned the biggest market share for that product.
Which smart speakers do you own? (Pick one)
Amazon Echo.
0%
Google Nest.
25%
Apple HomePod.
25%
Other.
12.5%
What's a smart speaker?
37.5%
A smart speaker is simply a speaker that is equipped with a digital assistant so that the user could verbally request streams of certain songs, play streamed newscasts, sporting events, and more. First released in February 2018, by that September the HomePod had captured 6% of the market. However, only 2% of Apple device owners had purchased one. Part of the reason for the HomePod's failure to become a big hit was Siri's inability to compete with Amazon's Alexa and Google's Google Assistant.
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Additionally, at the initial price of $349 (later reduced to $299), the HomePod was much more expensive than the $50-$100 smart speakers that were available at the time. Apple scrapped the HomePod and buried it in the non-existent burial plot in Apple Park next to the Newton. But in November 2020, Apple released the HomePod mini, a more compact version of the original HomePod. Also compacted was the price, which was reduced to $99.
Apple customers continue to favor the Echo
Perhaps less likely to satisfy audiophiles than the OG model, the HomePod mini has been more of a commercial success. However, there remains a group of tech consumers that wanted nothing to do with the original HomePod and continue to stay away from the latest Apple smart speaker to this day. And that is Apple device owners. According to Consumers Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), the same organization we cited in the 2018 story showing the lack of interest from Apple device owners in the OG HomePod, these days Apple fans still have no interest in the Tech Giant's smart speaker.
Apple customers are not interested in the HomePod. Image credit-CIRP
CIRP continues to survey smart speaker ownership among new Apple device buyers. The latter is made up of consumers who purchased one of more Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch) during the quarter that immediately preceded the one that the survey was taken in. For the most recent 12-month period that covers September 2024 through September 2025, the smart speaker most owned by Apple customers was the Amazon Echo.
Why don't Apple users like the HomePod?
That is surprising in one aspect as Apple customers are notoriously faithful to the company. On the other hand, U.S. Apple fans are simply acting like the rest of the consumers in the country who favor the Echo smart speaker line. As of this past September, Amazon Echo smart speakers are owned by 35% of U.S. Apple customers. The HomePod still managed not to take second place as that spot went to the Google Nest. Finally, in third place with a 10% share among Apple customers, is the HomePod with a 12% slice of the pie.
It seems that Apple consumers are still price sensitive. While the HomePod mini does deliver great sound and has a nice-looking design, at $99 it's twice the price of the fifth generation Amazon Echo Dot and Google Nest mini (two budget speakers).
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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
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