HomePod on Sale Today Along with Alexa and Google Home Discounts
The big news in smart speaker land today is the official availability date for the Apple HomePod. On Apple.com and BestBuy.com purchases made today are expected to arrive as early as Tuesday. Apple and Best Buy also have units available for pick-up today in-store. There have been a lot of HomePod reviews and many reach the same conclusion. The sound quality is high. The feature set is limited. It is expensive. However, this is Apple and tech competitors follow the company as closely as the typically fawning media. So, it’s no surprise that Google and Amazon are also actively promoting their voice assistant products today.
Google and Amazon Offer Sale Prices on Smart Speakers
Google and Amazon aren’t taking it for granted that Apple will struggle in the smart speaker market. Google today has discounts that bring Google Home to $99 and Google Home Mini to $39. That means you can buy 3.5 Google Home’s and about 9 Google Home Minis for the price of one Apple HomePod. Not to be left out, Amazon is discounting four of its smart speaker products. The Echo now under $85 and Echo Dot is about $40. You can do the same math in HomePod multiples, but it may be that Amazon is more focused on matching Google smart speaker pricing than concerned about Apple.
With that said, Echo Spot is on sale for the first time today coming in at $15 off of the $129.99 list price. That is interesting pricing until you realize that you can now buy three Echo Spots for the price of a single HomePod. And, Amazon’s top product, Echo Show is $50 off today. You can buy about two of those for the price of a HomePod.
Both Amazon and Google do have products that are not discounted today. Google Home Max remains at $399. That is $50 more expensive than Apple HomePod for the product that most directly competes with it. Amazon Echo Plus is also not discounted. That product has never been on sale to my knowledge. There is a new competitor in the market that is well worth watching and it is clear Google and Amazon are not satisfied to watch and wait. They instead are intent on pressing their early market advantage.
Apple HomePod Sales will Reach 3.8 Million in 2018 Says Strategy Analytics
