The HomePod mini has clearly given Apple a foothold in the connected speaker market, doubling the Cupertino company’s market share.
Apple was invited into the smart speaker market quite late, as is often the case when it launched its HomePod, allowing companies like Amazon and Google to grab a big chunk of the stock in this juicy market. That being said, the HomePod was a wobbly product, so to speak, resulting in a commercial failure. With a frankly high price, many hesitant buyers found it difficult to swallow a pill. Luckily, HomePod mini has arrived.
HomePod mini clearly helped Apple enter the smart speaker market
Subsequently, Apple released its HomePod mini, a much more affordable version for those looking for a smart speaker while staying within the Apple ecosystem, and it seems that the efforts of the Apple brand have paid off. At least that’s what the Strategy Analytics study found, according to the results, that HomePod mini allowed Apple to double its presence in the connected speaker market.
Doubling the market share of Cupertino
The specialist company estimates that Apple shipped about 4 million connected speakers in the third quarter of 2021, allowing it to regain 10.2% market share. That’s almost double from the same period in 2020, when Apple represented “only”5.9% of the market prior to HomePod mini’s launch. In other words, we can quite logically say that this new speaker, more compact and less expensive, has greatly contributed to the growth of the Apple brand in this market.
That being said, Apple still lags far behind other companies such as Amazon and Google, each with over 20% market share. Interestingly, although they are not available in the US, companies such as Baidu and Alibaba are in third and fourth place, respectively, thus dropping Apple to only fifth place.