I'm also surprised that they didn't end up buying Sonos. It seems like a no-brainer. Everything about the Sonos company just screams Apple, right down to the build quality and design aesthetic.

It also seems like the smarter play, from a sales standpoint, is to sell a small device with the advanced microphone array, and simply use that to control the Sonos speakers. That way, they'd be able to sell a device that was technically still in the price range of the Echo and Home, even though it doesn't have speakers in it.

But, based on the advanced acoustic stuff they're putting into it, I'd see how that would be difficult to implement without a newer generation of Sonos products that would include all the new Apple stuff in it. I guess they decided they'd just build their own thing. That makes sense too, but it's definitely going to be a slight challenge to market a product that's 2-3 times as expensive as the competition, especially in this day and age where the average consumer just doesn't care as much about sound quality as they do about price.

I'm not digging Apple on this, BTW (I know, for once! ). I think they built an extremely impressive device here. I'm sure a large number of people will buy one. But time will tell how many. This certainly isn't like the Apple Watch, which blew away all competitors (and still does). The Echo is extremely popular, and even Google Home is gaining traction, especially at the current $109 price point. I have no doubt that the sound quality of the HomePod would blow my Google Home out of the water. It's almost enough to make me wish I were in the Apple ecosystem

I'll just hope that Google puts out a beefier Home sometime soon. I'm not counting on it. They'll probably get distracted like usual and focus on their lousy assistant, letting everything else fall by the wayside. (can you tell I'm not pleased with Google lately?)