Speculative Report Claims 'Low-Priced' HomePod Will Fall Under Beats Brand

A questionable new report from Apple's supply chain claims that the company's rumored "low-priced" version of the HomePod will be placed under the Beats by Dre brand instead of the expected Apple branding. The report comes from Chinese news site Sina, which also says the $199 speaker will have MediaTek as the supplier, a change from Apple's decision to give Inventec sole supplier duties on the first HomePod (via LoveiOS).

Reports about a cheaper HomePod began appearing quickly after news of lackluster sales for the first version of the speaker emerged earlier this year, with former KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and other industry watchers predicting a low-cost speaker priced between $150 and $200. What's new in this week's report is the idea of a Beats-branded version of the HomePod, but it's unclear exactly what form the speaker would take, what features it would carry over from the $350 version of the speaker, and where Sina is sourcing the news from in the first place.

mitchs homepod on shelf
It seems unlikely that Apple would somehow combine the HomePod and Beats brands into one product, and due to all of this it's important to take the new report with a dose of skepticism. Beats last updated its Pill line of speakers with the Pill+ in 2015, which ran for $230 at launch but nowadays is priced closer to $130 when purchased on sale. Pill devices lack persistent "Hey Siri" functionality, likely due to their lack of constant AC power, so it also seems unlikely that Apple would extend that feature beyond its own line of devices, currently including the iPhone, iPad, HomePod, and Apple Watch.

In his prediction, Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple is "mulling" a "low-cost version" of the HomePod in an effort to boost short-term shipments. Apple's main selling point on the $350 HomePod is its high-quality audio playback, with reviewers agreeing that the speaker blows other smart speakers out of the water in terms of audio performance, but Siri's performance, the lack of certain languages, and Apple's walled garden ecosystem (particularly excluding any music service besides Apple Music) left many to wonder if the price was actually justified.

As a point of comparison, two of Apple's rivals sell entry-level versions of their smart speakers for as low as $50 in the United States, including Amazon's Echo Dot ($49.99) and Alphabet's Google Home Mini ($49.00). The smaller, cheaper devices allow users to expand features of the connected speaker system into other rooms around their home, without having to spend a lot of money on purchasing the base speakers multiple times.

For now, the HomePod still lacks a few features Apple announced prior to the speaker's launch, namely AirPlay 2 support and multi-room audio, both pegged for release through a firmware update sometime later in 2018. Although there have been many reports about a cheaper HomePod, none have yet hinted at a potential launch window for the rumored lower-cost speaker.

Related Roundup: HomePod
Buyer's Guide: HomePod (Neutral)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Monday June 30, 2025 1:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...
maxresdefault

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options...

Top Rated Comments

oneMadRssn Avatar
93 months ago
Can we stop comparing the HP to a $50 dot...
Why?

Other than better audio quality, a $50 dot is more useful in every way imaginable. And a $100 pair of amplified stereo speakers plugged into the dot can easily match the audio quality of a HP.

Apple needs to learn that there is more to competition than brand and price tiers. In these IoT segments, people will cross-shop vastly different price ranges and types of products.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Andres Cantu Avatar
93 months ago
Fix Siri first, then worry about a low-cost HomePod.

And make Siri be the same on all devices, as a start.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
robbyx Avatar
93 months ago
My complaint isn't about new features though. My complaint is specific. Do not ship unfinished product. I rather it works well and ship complete. I'm funny that way. It's one of the reasons I am rarely a first adopter. Others may be more forgiving. That's totally okay. To each his own.
I agree. The old Apple wowed us when a new product was released. This Apple announces products early and then ships them late AND feature incomplete. There’s nothing “magical” about that.

I think HomePod would have done much better if they’d waited another year and built something truly great. They harp on audio quality as if that alone is supposed to convince people to buy. News flash. There are plenty of great sounding speakers out there. If you care about audio quality, you already have good ones. I laugh at the Apple fans who ooooo and ahhhhh over the HomePod quality and how they’ve been waiting for a great sounding speaker. What rock do they live under?

HomePod is a flop because of the software, not the hardware. Apple rakes in billions every quarter yet can’t ship anything on time these days. By releasing HomePod feature incomplete, they only highlighted the advantages of competing platforms. After returning my HomePod, I bought an Echo Dot to control my Sonos. I’d never tried voice control, but liked the way Siri worked on HomePod.
[doublepost=1526921858][/doublepost]
I wish Siri on the HomePod could be used to play music from my iTunes server library. I have zero interest in AppleMusic (or any other service of this kind) but I could enjoy using Siri to play the music I kept organised and tagged already…
This is one of the product’s many shortcomings. I have thousands of CDs on my home music server in lossless format. Why should I waste bandwidth and listen to lower quality audio via streaming when I have high quality files available on my local network? If you don’t have Apple Music, I can understand that getting Siri to work with a local library might be more complex (from Apple’s perspective), but it’s absurd that they didn’t offer this feature to Apple Music subscribers. They know what’s in your library. They know which files reside on your local machine. Why not always favor the highest quality audio file available? There are so many obvious software/feature fails with HomePod. It’s such a disappointing product from that standpoint.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sracer Avatar
93 months ago
They don't use those exact words, but they use synonyms and clearly describe it as a smart speaker. You aren't really debating the proposition that the HP is advertised for much more than just listening to music, are you??




It's all fun and games until SOMEBODY has to bring facts into the discussion. :rolleyes::D

I find the HomePod too restrictive for both of the primary functions... as a speaker for playing music or as a smart assistant. Whether it is the HomePod or Apple TV, they don't offer the flexibility that their competitors do... and at significantly lower prices. A "dumb" HomePod that operates as simply a bluetooth speaker (with aux input) at an appropriate price would be appealing to me.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spazzcat Avatar
93 months ago
Can we stop comparing the HP to a $50 dot...
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
laurim Avatar
93 months ago
Why?

Other than better audio quality, a $50 dot is more useful in every way imaginable. And a $100 pair of amplified stereo speakers plugged into the dot can easily match the audio quality of a HP.

Apple needs to learn that there is more to competition that brand and price tiers. In these IoT segments, people will cross-shop vastly different price ranges and types of products.
It pains me to agree. After waiting years for Apple and device makers to get together so I could have a Siri smarthome, I gave up and bought 6 Dots and a SmartThings hub. It works great, I have lots of devices to choose from and I don’t have to use a Raspberry Pi to hobble it all together. Apple really screwed the pooch on smarthome stuff. Makes me really sad when I remember Steve Jobs talking about the AppleTv being the future smarthome hub.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)