It's pretty simple why people don't like it, and it's obvious why it's not selling well. The Homepod does not have an aux cord. The Homepod does not allow you

It's pretty simple why people don't like it, and it's obvious why it's not selling well. The Homepod does not have an aux cord. The Homepod does not allow you to use its onboard bluetooth 5.0 hardware to play music from another device The Homepod does not allow you to play spotify, unless you play it from an airplay-equipped device (so not android without a workaround), which means you cannot ask it to play spotify at all, or for that matter, play any other service except their own. Many reviews are reporting a lack of features in the homepod's Siri, as well as poor performance of existing features. I agree with you when you say apple is great at getting people to care about things that nobody cared about before. Are you suggesting that those things actually matter? Do you believe apple is getting people to care about these things out of an abundance of compassion and drive to educate the masses? I think it's more plausible that Apple will get their customers to care about whatever leads them to purchase products from Apple. It's a consumer speaker, priced on par with professional (albeit entry level, but still professional) hardware. It's no wonder apple is offering these at 50% off to employees. That is the only reason there is one sitting at my house right now, because at that price it's worth it as a speaker, despite the shortcomings. Just not worth it for almost everyone else.