The Arrival of HomePod

This week we saw the arrival of Apple's much anticipated response to Google and Amazon...a home product called HomePod. Gotta love the name! Gotta love consistent branding! The brand has been in tease mode for weeks now, and now it's finally here.

Music seems to be at the heart of HomePod, as well as complete compatibility with Apple products. Perhaps the entire point of differentiation as the third player into the market.

I'm sure competitors are shaking in their boots to some extent, and perhaps that's why we saw such a strong showing by Alexa at this year's Super Bowl.

Sonos, as in the speaker system that can currently connect to Apple devices, took a different, more welcoming approach by creating a new playlist to celebrate HomePod's arrival. The welcome note had an interesting twist, however, in that it was housed on Spotify which isn't compatible with HomePod since it only plays Apple Music. Ouch.

The plot thickens.

As what seems to often be the case with the release of Apple products, consumers found a product "issue" right off the bat...HomePod can leave white rings on wood surfaces.

Easily removed, as the brand says, after a couple of days or completely avoided with a coaster (as pointed out by Gail King on CBS This Morning). There's even a hashtag already. Oh the drama.

Will it work being the third player in? Can Apple pull this off? What's your experience? JIM