Apple Might Bring a 'Mini' HomePod Smart Speaker Alongside iPhone 12, Leak Suggests

Apple is gearing for the launch of its new iPhone 12 series on October 13 via a virtual event. Apart from the new iPhone, it is being reported that Apple might launch a couple of other products like the AirPods Studio over-the-ear headphones and a new HomePod smart speaker. While the speculations around the launch don’t seem to die down, a fresh report now suggests that the new HomePod that Apple is speculated to unveil might be a smaller, more affordable HomePod Mini, and not an upgrade to the existing smart speaker. According to a known Apple tipster, Apple may launch a HomePods Mini alongside iPhone 12, and not the HomePod 2.

Known Apple tipser who goes by @l0vetodream username posted the update on his Twitter. “there is no HomePod2 this year, only have mini one,” @l0vetodream sad in the tweet. The leak was first reported on by MacRumours, which said that Apple may continue to sell that HomePod smart speaker alongside the smaller HomePod Mini, if released. A more affordable version of the Apple smart speaker might just do the trick for the Cupertino-based giant, which hasn’t seen the success it is used to with the HomePod smart speaker. Reports suggest that the price of the Apple HomePod is thought to have been the biggest obstacle in terms of sales. The company had last year reduced the price of the HomePod speaker as well, but it’s still considered much more expensive than lower-priced competitors like Amazon’s Echo and the Google Nest smart speakers.

Bloomberg had, in 2019 first speculated the arrival of a smaller, more affordable HomePod speaker with two tweeters instead of the standard speaker’s seven.

Apple had first launched the HomePod smart speaker in 2018. The company has since made the speaker more user friendly by adding new features such as multi-user voice recognition, ambient sounds, and multi-room audio setup which links several HomePod speakers together.

Apple is also said to unveil its over-the-ear headphone AirPods Studio during the October 13 virtual event. Apple sent out invites for the iPhone 12 launch event earlier this week.

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