To be honest, Apple designed the HomePod as a speaker first and a smart assistant second. People were expecting it to be a smart assistant first, and a speaker second. Just about every review praised the speaker for its quality, but felt it was let down by the limited nature of Siri. it was a fair critique too. I feel like this was the major downfall of the OG HomePod. Unless you treated it like an expensive wireless speaker, you really weren't going to like it. The Mini seems much better priced, but for what it is, it probably would work better as a hybrid battery powered device (rather than a purely plugged in speaker).
The conventional criticism was that HomePod’s lack of success was due to its price and the limitations of Siri. I think the exact opposite is true. As you said, HomePod was a speaker first and a smart assistant second, but I think the problem with the product existed in the fact that it wasn’t a good enough smart speaker, NOT in the fact that it wasn’t a good enough assistant.
I wrote about this almost three ago here:
https://link.medium.com/ptK6tKq9adb
Basically, while Siri obviously needed work, that was not the product’s main flaw. The product’s main flaw is that it was ONLY a music device. It needed to be a living room device. If it’s not going to be a cheap $50 kitchen device to compete with Alexa, then it needed to be a full-on living room device.
The sound quality is excellent for what it is, but when you can’t even use the thing as part of your home theater, you’ve siloed it off into this tiny little space where it exists only as a niche music player. That just doesn’t cut it. People don’t want to spend $349 each on something so limited.
Three years later and it’s an entirely different product. It now has AirPlay 2. It now works natively with your Apple TV. It now supports Atmos. It now plays Apple TV menu sounds and even game sounds. Those used to be routed to the TV internal speakers due to audio latency limitations. It now has intercom functionality and speakerphone. And yes, Siri has gotten significantly better since. And the price dropped from $349 to $299, with periodic sales that sometimes bring it all the way down to $199.
HomePod today is an entirely different product. I think it’s finally a very compelling product. But as I mentioned in that article, there are still a few pieces missing. For example, I’d like to see surround sound. Imagine being able to use two HomePod Minis as your rear channels. Imagine a SubPod (or HomeWoof?) And of course, it needs some sort of API or pathway (AirPlay 3?) whereby you can use your HomePods with external devices, like your PS5.
Once those few remaining pieces are in place, the HomePod will have become a complete living room device that obviates the need for any A/V receiver or speaker system for most people. That market will still exist for audiophiles, but for most consumers, a stereo or surround sound HomePod system will sound fantastic and will be the only speakers they need in their living room.
(But you're comparing BT sound here versus wired in my example...) My bad...
