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 launched at just $99, with pre-orders beginning November 6 and availability following on November 16.
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 “amazing sound” alongside Siri functionality and smart home control, with a compact spherical design that enabled 360-degree audio.
The HomePod mini is powered by the Apple 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. It supports 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Ultra Wideband for proximity-based features, and Thread networking, allowing it to function as a smart home hub.
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. A second-generation Ultra Wideband chip and Apple’s N1 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip are also possibilities.
The new HomePod mini was reportedly “ready” to launch since late last year. Now, the device is said to be “on hold” until Apple releases its more personalized version of Siri later this year. The revamped assistant is expected to debut in iOS 27, which will be available in beta starting in June and should be released to all users with a compatible iPhone in September.
