Apple HomePod debuts with strong sales but falls 19 percent below the Amazon Echo Show's launch weekend
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Apple has finally made its foray into the premium voice-activated speaker market with the anticipated release of its HomePod, and according to new data from Slice Intelligence, Apple’s launch outperformed its competitors on the first day of release, selling 9x more units than the Sonos One and outselling the Google Home Max by a factor of 11.
The smart speaker to beat, though, is Amazon’s flagship, the Echo Show. On the first day of release, the Echo Show out-sold the HomePod by strong 31 percent, a number that would grow to 86 percent by the end of the first three days of availability.
The Echo Show is the lion of the smart home speaker jungle, with the HomePod selling just 48 percent of what the Echo Show sold in the inaugural three-day launch period. Indeed, the HomePod launch fits the pattern that is familiar to Apple watchers—a spike in sales the first days followed by a quick drop off.
Even with a relatively strong debut, HomePod lags way behind Amazon Echo Show
Google Home Max and Sonos One have stayed level after lackluster launches
Copyright © Rakuten Intelligence 2019. May 9-11, 2017, October 4-6, 2017, December 11-13, 2017, January 26-28, 2018. n=2,411 U.S. online shoppers
Apple fanboys continue to drive sales of Apple’s premium devices
As was the case with the iPhone X, buyers who drink the Apple kool-aid couldn’t wait to get their hands on a HomePod. In fact, 45 percent of HomePod buyers also bought the iPhone X, and 92 percent of buyers were male.
These buyers were so loyal to Apple that they were able to resist the siren song of Alexa, Siri, OK Google, and Sonos One. While these devices have been mainstreaming over the last two years, 74 percent of HomePod buyers had not purchased a voice-activated speaker in that timeframe.
HomePod buyers follow the usually Apple Fanboy pattern:
Predominantly male, Apple loyal, and recent Apple-buyers
Copyright © Rakuten Intelligence 2019. *Buyers who haven't purchased a voice-powered home speaker in the last two years
A strong start, but a ways to go…
While the HomePod launch was the loudest debut of a premium voice-activated speaker, it still needs to catch up to the Echo Show, which, over the last year, has 5.2 percent share of the total voice-activated speaker market, and the Sonos One with 1.4 percent, versus the HomePod’s 0.4 percent.
HomePod has lightyears to go to become a contender
Despite a relatively strong launch
Copyright © Rakuten Intelligence 2019. May 9-11, 2017, October 4-6, 2017, December 11-13, 2017, January 26-28, 2018. n=2,411 U.S. online shoppers
About this data
With a panel of over 5.5 million online shoppers, Slice Intelligence gives the most detailed, and accurate digital commerce data available, and is reported daily.
Slice Intelligence is the only service to measure digital commerce directly from the consumer, across all retailers, at the item level, and over time. Our retailer-independent methodology precisely measures commerce as it happens. By extracting detailed information from hundreds of millions of aggregated and anonymized e-receipts, Slice can map the entire Purchase Graph, connecting each and every consumer to all their purchases.
Slice gets its data from e-receipts – not a browser, app or software installed by the end-user – so its measurement reflects comprehensive shopping behavior across multiple devices, over time, which are key in an increasingly omnichannel retail world. Slice Intelligence is the exclusive e-commerce data provider for NPD’s Checkout Tracking e-commerce service.
