Apple to release HomePod speaker on February 9, pre-order starts on Jan 26

Taking on Amazon and Google, Apple has announced that it will release the HomePod on February 9 and the pre-orders for the device will start from January 26 in the US, Britain and Australia.

According to The Verge, the smart speaker -- that will use Siri voice assistant -- will then arrive in France and Germany sometime this spring.

The company's first smart speaker was originally supposed to go on sale before the end of the 2017, but it was delayed in mid-December.

Priced $349, Apple's speaker is positioned more as a competitor to Sonos' high-end wireless speakers than as a competitor to Amazon's Echo and Google Home.

Apple launched HomePod in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

The report said the iPhone maker's focus here is on music and sound quality, rather than the speaker's intelligence.