January 18 night, Apple announced the launch of the new HomePod (second generation), priced at 2,299 CNY. The new HomePod has two fewer tweeters and microphones than its predecessor, and only supports Wi-Fi 4, while its predecessor supported Wi-Fi 5.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Matthew Costello, Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering and operations, discussed why Apple decided to reintroduce a full-size HomePod now. According to Costello, Apple “learned from the first generation of HomePod” and introduced the new model at a time when it could “achieve a wide range of experience goals.
Costello also talked about why the new HomePod only supports Wi-Fi 4 connectivity, which is downsized from the Wi-Fi 5 support of the previous model. In his very vague answer, Costello said that this will not have an impact on performance.
“HomePod’s use of Wi-Fi 4 connectivity allows us to reach exactly what’s best across the system,” Costello said, “making sure Siri requests are answered and that all of your experiences in terms of listening, controlling your smart home accessories, and more are consistent while being energy efficient.”
Costello also elaborated on the inability to pair the new HomePod with the original HomePod, “When creating a stereo pair, it’s important that the audio characteristics are matched for an optimal, balanced experience. The new HomePod delivers the immersive, room-filling sound that users love, with more detail, clarity and layers than the original HomePod, so we wanted the acoustic imaging to be as pure and consistent as possible from generation to generation. The principle of having the audio characteristics match in a pair of stereo speakers applies to the HomePod mini, the original HomePod and the new HomePod.”
Costello also said the HomePod mini was “very popular,” but did not provide any other details or comment on the future of the small speaker.
