Apple HomePod up for pre-orders in Japan and Taiwan

Enrique, 16 August 2019

Preorders for the Apple HomePod are now live on Apple’s Japan and Taiwan websites. The smart speaker retails for JPY 32,800 Yen ($308) and TWD 9,900 ($316), respectively, with an expected shipping date of next Friday, August 23.

The HomePod currently retails in the US for $300, following a $50 price cut. It was slow to gain market share with most competitors coming at a fraction of the its price and Amazon’s strong hold of the smart speaker market.

Apple HomePod up for pre-orders in Japan and Taiwan

Since its launch, Apple has updated the HomePod with phone call support, support for multiple timers, and ability to search for songs by lyrics. iOS 13 brings a host of new features including Handoff of audio between the HomePod and an iPhone, voice recognition for support of multiple users, and tighter integration with iOS Shortcuts and HomeKit.

The 13.0 update for the HomePod, along with iOS 13, iPad OS, MacOS 10.15 Catalina, and tvOS 13 are expected to arrive soon after Apple’s iPhone 11 press event, which is suggested to take place on September 10 this year.

Apple HomePod Japan | Taiwan

Apple iOS

Reader comments

wasox
16 Aug 2019
8V{

Exactly so indeed

Seanyishere
16 Aug 2019
jRt

Siri and SiriKit are still gimped. Thats why Apple came out with a kludge called Siri Shortcuts, because Siri has to many restrictions and limitations. The HomePod came out over a year and a half ago, and ios developers still to this day cannot m...