Apple's HomeView: Good and Bad

Here's the thing. Rumors of the HomeView (the name, then unknown) have been circling for a long time. I was excited by what I read. What I braced myself for was some $1,299 retail price that would just make it completely unrealistic. That's how Apple rolls sometimes.

So then fast forward to now and Apple rolls out a $299 (!!) device. I preordered it immediately. The HomeView really fails to "check the boxes" though. It's very design seems hamstrung.

First, the good. I already mentioned the price. Apple wants adoption, and that's how they'll get it. $299 is impulse purchase territory for plenty of people. The design is great. It's a throwback to the old school iMac. It's not too big or too small. They didn't waste time and money on powering it by battery or anything silly like that. The hardware and design folks scored a win here.

Second, the bad. Basically, the product people completely failed. They designed an alternative to an old iPad, but that only the owner of an iPhone / iPad can use it. What a great device the HomeView could be if one of my young kids could use it to FaceTime me or a relative. Nope. Some might think the lack of apps is a selling point; it keeps the device focussed. It's like a CarPlay device in your kitchen. But to have a truly independent device in my kitchen would be actually useful. An old iPad, for instance.

Anyway, I was undeterred in my preorder decision. I'd find a way to get $299 of value out of it.

And then I watched the commercial.

Holy crap.

Technically, I only watched about 90 seconds of the commercial before I couldn't take it any more. You've got two bickering children. Two disconnected parents. This mom "wearing the pants" in the family. A dad getting bossed around by his son. And then the grandparents call and start berating their adult son. I stopped the commercial there and cancelled my order.

Good riddance.

Apple marketing is a dumpster fire.