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0 pointsMatthiasPortzel3y ago0 comments

Apple is selling HomePods and iPhones for a profit. But Amazon is/was selling Echos for a loss, in the hope that they would drive additional Prime music subscriptions and lower friction to Amazon purchases. That didn’t happen, and so the product line all-devices-sold-with-Alexa has lost Amazon money. The equivalent comparison, all devices with Siri, has made Apple a ton of money.

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partiallypro3y ago

Apple's HomePods have been a resounding failure though? I don't know where you're getting your data, but it's wrong. They literally discontinued the original model because sales were SO bad.

acdha3y ago

Speaking of data, what are you basing that on? They seem to be selling well according to industry reports and companies tend not to continue products which lose money.

criddell3y ago

They've sold a billion dollars worth of HomePod minis. Even at Apple scale, that's not bad.

They've just launched a new HomePod that replaces the original. It's weird that there was such a big gap between the first one and the new one.

cool_dude853y ago

Without examining internal Amazon or Apple data on the marginal sales increase estimates for Siri/Alexa it's impossible to say, though.

Apple has earned a lot of money on devices with Siri included. Microsoft has made a lot of money on OSes with Minesweeper included.

It would be wrong to conclude anything about the profitability of Minesweeper based on that fact, just as it is wrong to conclude anything about the profitability of Siri based on the equivalent fact from Apple.

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