Apple's View on Life in Homes is Expensive

TLDR; I'm cheap and sad that Apple isn't giving HomePod mini 2's for free to everyone who clapped for their iLife presentations in 2003.

For as long as I've used Apple products, and even when I used to sell them while working at a local computer store in a previous life, I've said that Apple engineers have an idea of what families are like, but don't have actual families themselves. I know this isn't literally true, but after years of using Apple software with my family and three kids, it's certainly felt true.

Apple engineers have watched TV shows about families. They've read books about families. They might even have siblings with kids. But they don't actually know what it's like to have adult(s) and kid(s) getting ready in the morning, prepping for a meal, managing screen time, or trying to share a photo album.

iPhones and iPads still aren't designed to be shared by multiple people with their own accounts. Apple TV technically supports multiple users, but anyone who's tried to keep their watch history separate from their kids knows how easily that can fall apart. Suddenly you've got episodes of Bluey or Ted Lasso marked as watched because someone else was using your account.

Even photo sharing on iOS/ macOS has taken years to get to the point where you can be able to share albums with family members easily.

All of it has felt like an engineer's view of how a family would operate in theory, without real life impacting decisions in software. The hardware has, for the most part, been great for families. Easy to use, durable, and generally reliable. But the pricing has always been harder to justify. Especially now, when families are getting squeezed by everything from groceries to housing, Apple seems increasingly comfortable charging premium prices for products that don't necessarily make family life any easier.

But Apple is and always has been a premium product that escaped containment and reached the masses. BMW and Mercedes don't lower their prices just because more people want to drive their cars. And Apple doesn't either. Even when it's selling products specifically designed for families.

Or at least Apple's idea of a family.

Pricing on the New Products Announced

Here's how the pricing for the new devices Apple announced today shakes out for Canadian families.

HomePod mini 2

• Priced at $199CAD
• Previous generation was $179CAD when it was replaced.
• Launch price for the HomePod mini was $129CAD in November 2020, a $70 price increase.

AppleTV 4K

• Priced at $429CAD in one 128GB configuration.
• Previous generation, AppleTV 4K 3rd generation, was $279CAD for 64GB / $349CAD for 128GB when it was replaced.
• Launch price was $179CAD for 64GB / $199CAD for 128GB for the AppleTV 4K (3rd generation), which is a $230 price increase.

HomeView

• Priced at $429CAD for either model.
• No previous generation to compare to.

If I was to outfit our family with new gear from Apple, I'd be getting 5 HomePod mini 2's (one per person), 2 AppleTV 4K's (one per TV), and one HomeView for our kitchen.

Apple's vision of the connected family home sounds great until you start doing the math on what it costs to actually connect your family home.

Doesn't Apple Want More of Their Devices in Our Homes?

Apple obviously didn't ask me. And I'm only speaking from my own cheap mentality around money. And I also know it's against Apple's very DNA to do any sort of loss leader pricing on products.

But I think if they could've priced the HomePod mini 2 at $149 it becomes something people would buy multiple of instead of one.

The AppleTV 4K at over $400CAD is so far out of most folks entertainment budgets, they'll just go buy a cheap "smart" & spying TV instead.

The most frustrating part of HomeView might be that its multiuser capabilities demonstrate Apple knows exactly how to build a device for multiple people in a household. So why can't my family have that on an iPad?

When does iPadOS get multiplayer, Apple?

I'm usually very bullish on new products from Apple. But I think the pricing combined with me not being able to see the use case when I overlay this product on my family, I don't get it. I have my iPhone on or near me all morning while getting ready, regardless of whether I'm in the space where the HomeView is. A phone call I start in the kitchen needs to easily come with me when I go back upstairs to get a hoodie. I've already got my iPhone in hand while I'm eating toast with a coffee and need to check my calendar for the day. And if I'm following a recipe, I need it where I'm actually cooking, not wherever Apple imagines the perfect spot for a HomeView should be.

I'm sure there are families who will find a use for all of these new products. And I'm fully prepared to be proven wrong. But when I look at how my family actually lives, I have a hard time seeing where any of these devices fit. Especially at these prices.

Maybe Apple has a better idea of how families work than I've given them credit for.

I'm just not sure it's a family I recognize.

On second thought...