Apple’s compact smart speaker, HomePod mini is available in five new color options but in select regions and countries. Having said that, there is evidence that suggests that the tech giant is ready to launch HomePod mini in more counties.
After launching the HomePod mini in 2020, Apple introduced the speaker in three new bold colors in 2021: yellow, blue, and orange. Working seamlessly with iPhone, the compact smart speaker delivers an immersive sound experience with rich 360-degree audio using computational audio technology. It comes with Siri support so users can request the speaker to play their favorite podcast or track easily and much more.
Support for new languages hints at HomePod mini’s release in more countries
In tvOS 15.2, Apple introduced support for Dutch and Russian languages for Siri on the HomePod, “Now includes language support for Dutch and French in Belgium, Russian in Russia, and French, German, and Italian in Switzerland.”
With support for the Dutch language, the speaker might launch in Netherlands and Sweden, along with Russia. Currently, it is not available in these countries.
Having said that, publisher Teknikveckan writes that Sweden will get the speaker “sometime in 2022”. Based on tips given to Macradion, Apple has sent HomePod mini to several testers to improve Siri’s Dutch but it is not going so well at the moment.
Macradion has received several tips on people who are testing HomePod mini in Swedish at the time of writing. It all happens so that an external party that is not Apple sends out a HomePod mini to selected testers who will then integrate with Siri every day by saying a bunch of different phrases. So far, the Swedish support seems to be a couple of months away. The test has been going on for eight weeks and several of our sources say that Siri has difficulty answering several, fairly simple questions.
Furthermore, sources have highlighted that Apple’s online stores in Thailand and Brazil enlist the speaker but with unclickable links.
After unimpressive sales of the expensive HomePod, Apple’s $99 mini version of the speaker is a hit with the consumers. As per a study from research firm Strategy Analytics, the tech giant has nearly doubled its market share in the smart speaker segment because of HomePod mini. In the third quarter of 2020, it had only a 5.9% market share which doubled to 10.2% in Q3 of 2021.
Therefore, by officially launching the product in more countries, Apple is like to further expand its market share in the smart speaker industry. Currently, HomePod mini is available in the following countries:
- The United States
- Canada
- Mexico
- China
- Hong Kong
- Japan
- Taiwan
- Australia
- Austria
- France
- Germany
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- New Zealand
- Spain
- the UK
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