HomePod Mini Is Now 2,000 Days Old

What’s Happening

Okay so Apple’s HomePod mini today reached a notable milestone, marking 2,000 days since its introduction in October 2020, an unusually long lifespan for an Apple hardware product that has yet to receive a second-generation refresh.

Apple unveiled the HomePod mini at its iPhone 12 event on October 13, 2020, positioning it as a smaller and more affordable alternative to the original HomePod. The device shipped at just 99, with pre-orders beginning November 6 and availability follow HomePod Mini Is Now 2,000 Days Old Sunday 4:08 am PDT by Hartley Charlton Apple’s HomePod mini today reached a notable milestone, marking 2,000 days since its introduction in October 2020, an unusually long lifespan for an Apple hardware product that has yet to receive a second-generation refresh. (wild, right?)

The device shipped at just $99, with pre-orders beginning November 6 and availability following on November 16.

The Details

Unlike the original HomePod , which emphasized premium audio at a higher price point, the HomePod mini was designed as a mass-market smart speaker that could be deployed throughout the home at comparatively low cost. Apple described it as delivering “insane sound” alongside Siri functionality and smart home control, with a compact spherical design that enabled 360-degree audio.

The HomePod mini is powered S5 chip, the same processor used in the Apple Watch Series 5, and features a single full-range driver, dual passive radiators, and a four-microphone array. 0, Ultra Wideband for proximity-based features, and Thread networking, allowing it to function as a smart home hub.

Why This Matters

Apple expanded the available colors in 2021, adding blue, yellow, and orange options to the original white and space gray finishes, and later replaced space gray with a similar “midnight” variant. Beyond these cosmetic updates, the underlying hardware has remained unchanged, making the HomePod mini one of the longest-running Apple devices without a specification revision. Apple is widely expected to release a second-generation HomePod mini sometime soon, and the most consistent expectation is a move to a newer chip in place of the current S5, which should improve responsiveness, computational audio performance, and headroom for future Siri features.

Tech companies have been making moves like this as competition heats up.

The Bottom Line

Apple is widely expected to release a second-generation HomePod mini sometime soon, and the most consistent expectation is a move to a newer chip in place of the current S5, which should improve responsiveness, computational audio performance, and headroom for future Siri features.

Are you here for this or nah?