Apple Launches HomePod Voice Speaker

Apple's long-awaited attack in the smart-speaker wars is coming as its innovative wireless speaker, HomePod  hits the stores next month.

After missing the critical holiday shopping season, Apple has jumped into the voice speaker wars with the HomePod smart speaker, the company’s very own device that will use its Siri voice assistant and compete against offerings from Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google.

HomePod, the innovative wireless speaker from Apple, arrives in stores beginning Friday, February 9 and is available to order online this Friday, January 26 in the US, UK, and Australia. HomePod will arrive in France and Germany this spring.

“HomePod is a magical new music experience from Apple. It brings advanced audio technologies like beam-forming tweeters, a high-excursion woofer and automatic spatial awareness, together with the entire Apple Music catalog and the latest Siri intelligence, in a simple, beautiful design that is so much fun to use,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“We’re so excited for people to get HomePod into their homes, apartments and businesses to hear it for themselves. We think they will be blown away by the audio quality.

The $349 voice-controlled speaker, introduced in June and originally scheduled for a December release, can make music suggestions and adjust home temperatures. The speaker also will be able to send messages and play news updates.

Currently, Apple is working to keep its Siri voice assistant relevant in the face of competition from Amazon's Alexa and Alphabet's Google Assistant, both of which are featured on smart speakers from those companies.

Apple also is counting on HomePod to boost subscriptions to Apple Music and block the rise of rival Spotify. The smart speakers from Google and Amazon let users give voice commands to play Spotify, but Apple Music does not work on the rival devices.

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