‘Nobody Is Going to Buy It’

Keris Lahiff, writing for CNBC:

Fiercer competition and an inflated belief in its own products are among some of the challenges facing the world’s largest company, according to BK Asset Management’s Boris Schlossberg.

“I do think they’re in trouble. I think they’re making a huge mistake,” Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy, told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Tuesday. “They’re basically betting on the fact that high expensive products can be sold at this point and it’s clearly becoming evident that everybody has caught up to them in the marketplace.”

Schlossberg’s concerns over Apple pricing resurfaced ahead of the launch of its Siri-connected artificial-intelligence home device, the HomePod. With a $349 price tag, its latest product is far more expensive than its major competitors, including Amazon’s Alexa-equipped Echo or Google’s Home Mini.

“Nobody is going to buy it at the price that they’re putting it out right now because the functionality of those products is just nowhere near as great as it needs to be relative to the price difference,” said Schlossberg.

Noted for future claim chowder.

HomePod is one of the most interesting new Apple products in years, insofar as I really don’t know how it’s going to sell. If most people see it as a direct competitor to Amazon Echos and Google Home dinguses, HomePod might be in trouble, because it’s a lot more expensive and has fewer features. But Apple has been positioning it as, first and foremost, a high-quality music player. The Siri-as-personal-assistant/smart-home-controller is secondary to audio quality. If there’s a market for that, HomePod could clean up. $350 is a low price in the audio world.

★ Wednesday, 24 January 2018