Apple will join Google and Amazon in the smart speaker segment during December when it releases its HomePod system. Powered by Siri, HomePod will be ALL ABOUT sound quality, which is the main thing missing from both Google Home and Amazon Echo.

Apple is essentially making a SONOS alternative that can also handle commands via voice. In this respect, HomePod should be leagues ahead of Google Home and Amazon Echo, though when it comes to actually performing tasks, Google and Amazon will almost certainly have the jump on Apple.

Apple detailed HomePod pretty extensively during its launch, but the company did not reveal one, key feature which was recently discovered by a developer.

According to this developer, Apple’s HomePod features a secret, LED display inside its chassis that will light up and display basic information; things like the time, the weather, and perhaps other things as well.

So why didn’t Apple mention this at launch? One potential answer could be that Apple wants to use it in the run up to the HomePod’s release date in order to ramp up hype around the device.

The other is that it wasn’t ready when Apple debuted the device on stage.

“Steven Troughton-Smith,” reports BGR, “shared his discovery of what appears to be the control framework for an LED matrix display in the HomePod OS. While digging into the functionality of the built-in “+” and “-” controls on the HomePod itself, Troughton-Smith’s discovery points to an LED grid of sorts, complete with RGB capability which could potentially be used as a rudimentary display of sorts.”

Neither Google Home nor Amazon Echo feature anything like this, so Apple is likely hoping the addition of a visual element to HomePod will entice potential, floating voters over to its way of doing things.

There is still the issue of Siri, which is no way near as powerful as Alexa and Google Home, despite being considerably older than both. Having said that, if Apple can achieve Sonos-grade sound quality on the HomePod, I think more than a few people will be willing to overlook this aspect.

And even though Siri is not as good, Apple will still sell millions of these things because A) it’s Apple and that’s what it does, and B) the sound quality should be significantly better than both Home and Echo.

Still Google Home is A LOT cheaper, as you can see below: