5 ways HomePod will beat Amazon Echo and Google Home (and 5 ways it won’t)

Apple’s HomePod smart speaker is finally here. After a month-long delay that caused it to miss the all-important holiday-shopping season, Apple has announced that the HomePod will begin shipping on February 9, more than eight months after we first got a glimpse of it at WWDC.

Apple is billing the HomePod as an audio device (hence its home under the Music tab on Apple.com), but in the age of growing Amazon Echo and Google Home devices, it needs to be much more than a really good speaker to compete with its fellow AI-enabled competitors. Here’s how the fight is shaping up:

5 WAYS HOMEPOD BEATS AMAZON ECHO AND GOOGLE HOME

Messaging and calls

Apple’s biggest advantage over Android is with Messages, and that will only strengthen