On the other hand, all three major smart home ecosystem providers refreshed their standard-bearing smart speakers last fall, centering on a $99 sweet spot. Apple, which had been the most conservative in the category while moving Apple Music to competitor’s products, entered the sub-$100 segment with a HomePod mini at a quarter of the price of its first squat cylinder. Compared to last fall’s harvest of cute, affordable speakers, the Google Nest Max was a large, expensive product. Its boxy mass evoked the Sonos 5 (which, while still available from Sonos, has taken a backseat to the smaller, less expensive One series).  Beyond merely enhancing what smart speakers can do, though, these products have taken on new features that drive more engagement than the typical smart speaker interactions of requesting weather updates and summoning playlists. They can act as digital photo frames, security camera viewers, video chat clients, and even a place to catch a TV show or movie in a smaller room such as a kitchen. Indeed, smart displays may have finally achieved the 20-year-old quest to create a “kitchen computer” once pursued by HP with its Windows Vista-based TouchSmart PC and the 3Com Audrey internet appliance. And particularly among the larger devices, many of these features have required that these products maintain a level of audio quality comparable to their screen-free cousins. As last fall’s launches showed, smart speakers aren’t disappearing any time soon. For the more privacy-minded, for example, the fear of a smart speaker surreptitiously recording conversations may pale in comparison to having one surreptitiously record video via the cameras some smart displays include. But the value gap such speakers have with smart displays is part of a broader challenge as voice interfaces expand into an ever-broader array of products.

Forget a 5G iPhone 12, I care more about a $99 HomePod MiniApple is rumored to be releasing a smaller, cheaper version of the HomePod smart speaker and it could be a more important product for Apple than the iPhone 12. Here’s why. Google Home Max is going for $179 and then it’s gone Google’s smart speaker is selling for less than half price – and then going the way of the dodo. Google Home Max reviewHarder, better, stronger sound comes to Google Home