The speaker will sell for about $350 in December in the US, United Kingdom and Australia.
The announcement was made at the tech giant's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, California.
"Just like iPod reinvented music in our pockets, HomePod is going to reinvent music in our homes", said Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller. Apple's new HomePod speaker may be music to the ears of its loyal fans, but how much it can crank up volume in the smart speaker market remains to be heard.
Apple also unveiled the high-end iMac Pro for power users, which features a whopping 18-core Xeon processor. And with Apple's HomeKit, Apple's proprietary wireless protocol for controlling third-party smart home gadgets in iOS, HomePod serves as a hub that can control connected lights and thermostats.
At about 7 inches tall, the HomePod is a bit squatter than the Amazon Echo, but roughly the same size as Google Home. Schiller said that devices like Amazon Echo allow users to use apps or play music, but their speakers "don't sound so great when you listen to music".
Apple also announced a new software kit for developers called ARKit, which will enabled app developers to build augmented reality apps on Apple's platforms more easily.
HomePod will be available for $349 starting in December initially in Australia, the United Kingdom and the US.
Apple's New HomePod Speaker to Compete with Amazon Echo
Apple's speaker will be launching in the U.S., U.K., and Australia in December, with additional markets to come next year. Apple Is Finally Bringing An Upgraded Siri Home: One of the messages from Apple this week is Siri has finally grown up.
The speaker, while expected by some industry watchers, marked Apple's first new product announcement since the Apple Watch in September 2014.
"It's actually lovely and we call it Homepod", Apple CEO Tim Cook said.
HomePod is created to work with an Apple Music subscription for access to over 40 million songs; it provides deep knowledge of personal music preferences and tastes and helps users discover new music.
But overall, Apple showed enough innovation at WWDC 2017 to give consumers and marketers reason to believe that the upcoming introduction of the 10th anniversary edition of the iPhone will capture hearts, minds, dollars, and our attention. "It will reinvent home audio", boasted Apple CEO Tim Cook.
But O'Donnell also expressed scepticism on Apple's ability to dominate this new segment. Some of the products will be available immediately; others will come later this year. Google, meanwhile, previewed new speaker features such as hands-free phone calling during its software conference last month. It can play music from Apple Music, tell you the news, do unit conversions, send messages, schedule reminders, set timers, translate, check stocks, answer trivia questions, and tell you what the traffic is like. Here's what we know about it so far.
Apple seems to be concentrating on the music capabilities of the HomePod to start.
The technology, a feature of the wildly successfully smartphone game Pokemon Go, overlays digital information on real-world images and is seen as an area in which the keenly awaited 10th-anniversary iPhone can stand out from competitors.
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