Apple HomePod purchase intent positive, Raymond James says

Getty Images

A prototype of Apple’s new HomePod is displayed during the 2017 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at the San Jose Convention Center on June 5, 2017 in San Jose, California.

Consumers are showing more interest in Apple’s Siri-powered HomePod speaker than they did in the Apple Watch when that product debuted, according to new data from Raymond James.

This suggests the HomePod will be a smash hit this holiday season.

According to a research note published by Raymond James on Friday, 14 percent of iPhone owners plan to buy a HomePod. When the company did a similar survey ahead of the Apple Watch launch, just 6 percent of iPhone owners were interested in buying Apple’s first wearable.

While Apple still hasn’t revealed quarterly sales numbers for the Apple Watch, the company’s “other products” category, which includes the Apple Watch, Beats Speakers, AirPods and more, increased 31 percent year on year. Raymond James said it expects that growth to continue. HomePod could help the category.

Apple still has an uphill battle to climb against existing smart home products such as the Amazon Echo, however. Sixteen percent of iPhone owners plan to buy an Echo, Echo Tap or Echo Dot from Amazon. Eighteen percent plan to buy a Bose speaker, which doesn’t have any sort of smart home control functionality. Just 2 percent of those surveyed are interested in acquiring Google Home.

Raymond James noted that, combined with the 5 percent of iPhone owners who plan to buy a Beats or Apple speaker, Apple actually comes out ahead of the Amazon Echo in terms of consumer purchase intention, with a combined 19 percent of iPhone owners planning to buy either a HomePod or a Beats product ahead of the 16 percent planning to buy an Echo.