An Even Cheaper Price
The admittedly high $350 price of the original HomePod was one of its most significant issues. When you can get an Echo speaker for a third of that price with even more functionality and other services, there’s not a lot of incentive to spring for the HomePod unless you only use Apple Music. This is why the most common rumor suggests that Apple will create a much cheaper HomePod for the second generation, that’s more appealing to a broader number of people. Although Apple recently slashed the price of the HomePod to $299, which is a bit more palatable.