Apple's HomePod arrives in Canada, France and Germany this June
But will this market expansion be enough to boost dwindling sales?
Wedged in among Apple's wider iOS 11.4 announcement today comes the news that HomePod is launching in Germany, France and Canada on June 18. This is a significant market expansion, and one surely designed to boost sales of the Siri-powered smart speaker that have so far been rather uninspiring. While Apple hasn't released any official figures, third parties have speculated on disappointing numbers.
The speaker is now available in six countries, including the UK and Australia, but if anything is going to help get it off the shelves it'll be today's iOS update, which brings more functionality to the device. The HomePod will now support multi-room audio and stereo pairing, which might make it a more attractive proposition to those tempted by Amazon and Google's offerings. However, there's no word yet on a price point for the device in these new markets -- if it's still too high then these extra features won't make much of a difference.
