Apple HomePod is officially launching in the Chinese market on 18 January

.

tech2 News Staff Jan 15, 2019 16:01 PM IST

The release of HomePod in China has been delayed almost by a year. But now, Apple has finally put a date to the launch and has officially announced that on 18 January the smart speaker will enter the Chinese market.

Apple announced that HomePod will launch in mainland China and Hong Kong on 18 January and will be available in white and space gray, just like all other markets.

Additionally, Apple says that the HomePod will be launched integrated with Apple Music’s “New Artist of the Week” feature in China. Like in all other countries the feature is available in, it will highlight the up and coming artists every week. The Chinese market will also see curated playlists for HomePod.

Apple HomePod.

In its announcement, Apple made special mention of the security features that the HomePod offers. It said that the HomePod does not send any information to Apple servers, unless the ‘Hey Siri’ command is recognised, and even then, the sent data remains encrypted and is “sent using an anonymous Siri identifier”. Apple also assured that no searches and requests made on the smart speaker are associated with a specific identity, hence no personal information is “gathered to sell to advertisers or other organizations”.

Interestingly, Amazon’s Echo range of smart speakers are currently not available in China. This gives Apple an edge over its competitor when it comes to the smart home speaker market.

Tech2 is now on WhatsApp. For all the buzz on the latest tech and science, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Tech2.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.

.. ..