Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

has produced and sold numerous music and multimedia

speakers Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Speaker (song), "Speaker" ( ...

, available for standalone purchase and bundled with

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

products.

Plug-and-play speakers

Bose RoomMate speakers

In September 1986, Apple sold a special edition of the

Bose Bose may refer to: * Bose (crater), a lunar crater. * ''Bose'' (film), a 2004 Indian Tamil film starring Srikanth and Sneha * Bose (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name) * Bose (given name), a given name * Bose, Italy, a ''fra ...

RoomMate speakers for the

Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II) is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Inc., Apple Computer beginning in September 1986. It is the fifth and most powerful model of the Apple II family. The "GS" in the name stands for "Graphics and Sound" ...

computer—which sports a built-in

Ensoniq Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally Sampler (musical instrument), samplers and synthesizers. History In spring 1983, former MOS Technol ...

synthesizer chip with optional stereo sound. The front grille of each speaker had the Bose logo inside a black rectangle, and the official rainbow Apple logo in a square next to it. The speakers matched the platinum gray color scheme introduced with the IIGS that year. Later editions of the speakers, likely for legal issues pertaining to Apple Records, replaced the Apple-shaped logo with a rainbow-colored square, and eventually removed any Apple reference entirely. The powered speakers lacked a variable volume knob or magnetic shielding (a warning label stated to keep it distanced from the CRT and magnetic storage) and retailed for . Although primarily intended for the Apple IIGS which it cosmetically matched and better suited for its advanced audio capabilities, the speakers were also made available for early Macintosh models.

AppleDesign Powered Speakers

Along with the

PowerCD Apple PowerCD is a CD player sold by Apple Computer in 1993 and discontinued several years later. It was a re-badged Philips-designed product (Philips CDF-100) which was sold in addition to Apple's speakers and also included a remote control. ...

introduced in 1993, Apple released two versions of their desktop speakers: the AppleDesign Powered Speakers (M6082) and the redesigned AppleDesign Powered Speakers II (M2497) a year later. The original speakers came in platinum gray to match Apple's desktop line, while the second generation were smaller, curvier and came in both platinum gray and a darker granite gray color designed to match the PowerBook line and PowerCD. Both were powered with an AC adapter and could be attached to any audio output source, with two separate inputs for the computer and an external CD player. Both had a headphone jack in the front of one speaker along with the volume control and an optional

subwoofer A subwoofer (or sub) is a loudspeaker designed to reproduce low-pitched audio frequencies, known as bass and sub-bass, that are lower in frequency than those which can be (optimally) generated by a woofer. The typical frequency range that is ...

connection port on some models.

G4 Cube speakers

Apple bundled a pair of model M7963 clear spherical/globe Sound Stick 2.1 based speakers with the

Power Mac G4 Cube The Power Mac G4 Cube is a Mac personal computer sold by Apple Computer, Inc. between July 2000 and 2001. The Cube was conceived as a miniaturized but powerful computer by Apple chief executive officer ( CEO) Steve Jobs and designed by Jony ...

, which was released on July 19, 2000. They used a custom USB interface and originally worked with the G4 Cube, Power PCs and ADC/ADP monitor screens. They work right up to OSX 10.6.4 Snow Leopard. They were designed by Jonathan Ive & created in partnership with

Harman Kardon Harman/Kardon is a brand of US-based Harman International Industries. Harman Kardon was originally founded in Westbury, New York, in 1953 by business partners Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon. The company is focused on three audio equipment b ...

, and were enlarged versions of the Odyssey speakers built in to the

iMac G3 The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of Macintosh personal computers that Apple Computer sold from 1998 to 2003. The iMac was Apple's first major product release under CEO Steve Jobs following his return to the financiall ...

Apple Pro Speakers

The Apple Pro Speakers were introduced in January 2001 alongside the Power Mac G4 Digital Audio, based on the G4 Cube's spherical speakers with a new digital audio system, plastic grilles, white rubber/silicone surrounds rather than the black foam used on the G4 cube speakers and changed the connector to a proprietary minijack that provided both power and audio. They were available as a standalone purchase for $59 and bundled with some versions of the

iMac G4 The iMac G4 is an all-in-one personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from January 2002 to August 2004. The computer is comprised of a hemispheric base that holds the components, including a PowerPC G4 processor, ...

Harman Kardon SoundSticks and iSub

Apple announced the iSub in 1999, a 6-inch

produced in partnership with

, designed by

Jony Ive Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a British-American designer. He is best known for his work at Apple Inc., where he was senior vice president of industrial design and chief design officer. Ive is the founder of LoveFrom, a crea ...

. It uses clear plastic to match the aesthetic of the

. It connected over

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

. Next, Harman Kardon and Apple designed the SoundSticks, which were introduced at the 2000

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

expo.

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

led the industrial design and mechanical engineering to have them fit into its product family. They include a new revision of the iSub. They won an Industrial Design Excellence Awards gold award and were featured on the cover of ''I.D.'' magazine. SoundSticks II were a minor upgrade, adding capacitive volume control buttons and a 3.5mm mini-jack input, replacing the previous USB input. SoundSticks III changed the styling slightly using black highlights and white lighting, instead of green and blue of the original SoundSticks and the SoundSticks II. SoundSticks Wireless introduced

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

iPod Hi-Fi

iPod Hi-Fi is a

speaker system A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or, more fully, a speaker system) is a combination of one or more speaker drivers, an Loudspeaker enclosure, enclosure, and electrical connections (possibly including a Audio crossover, crosso ...

that was released on February 28, 2006, for use with any

iPod The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about mon ...

digital music player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, Electric battery, batter ...

. The iPod Hi-Fi retailed at the

Apple Store The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell, service and repair various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac desktop and MacBook laptop personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad ta ...

for

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

349 until its discontinuation on September 5, 2007. The iPod Hi-Fi received criticism due to its high price, lack of an AM/FM radio, and the limited functionality of its remote control.

Smart speakers

HomePod

The first-generation HomePod

smart speaker A smart speaker is a type of loudspeaker and voice command device with an integrated virtual assistant (artificial intelligence), virtual assistant that offers interactive actions and Hands-free computing, hands-free activation with the help of o ...

was announced on June 5, 2017. It was sold in two colors: white and space gray. It had a small touchscreen on its top, seven

tweeter A tweeter or treble speaker is a special type of loudspeaker (usually dome, inverse dome or horn-type) that is designed to produce high audio frequencies, typically from 2,000 to 20,000 Hertz, Hz. The name is derived from the high pitched sound ...

s in its base, and a four-inch

woofer A woofer or bass speaker is a technical term for a loudspeaker driver designed to produce low frequency sounds, typically from 50 up to 200 Hz. The name is from the onomatopoeic English word for a dog's deep bark, " woof" (in contrast to a ' ...

towards the top, as well as six

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...

s used for

voice control A voice-user interface (VUI) enables spoken human interaction with computers, using speech recognition to understand spoken commands and answer questions, and typically text to speech to play a reply. A voice command device is a device controlle ...

and acoustic optimization; it also supports

beamforming Beamforming or spatial filtering is a signal processing technique used in sensor arrays for directional signal transmission or reception. This is achieved by combining elements in an antenna array in such a way that signals at particular angles ...

. It runs the

audioOS The HomePod is a series of smart speakers developed by Apple. Designed to work with the Apple Music subscription service, the HomePod incorporates beamforming and eight speakers and is sold in two colors: white and midnight. It is sold alongs ...

operating system, which is based on iOS. The HomePod can act as a speaker and as a

Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ...

voice assistant that listens for the "Hey Siri" command. The first-generation HomePod was discontinued on March 13, 2021. The second-generation was introduced on January 18, 2023.

HomePod Mini

HomePod Mini smart speaker was released on November 16, 2020. It is smaller than the HomePod, roughly spherical, and has three speakers and four microphones. Intercom, a new feature on HomePod and HomePod Mini introduced in iOS 14.1 and iPadOS 14.1, allows iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch users with multiple HomePods and HomePod Minis to communicate between rooms using their voice. Siri recognizes up to six voices, and personalizes responses for each one.

References

{{Apple Inc. hardware Apple Inc. peripherals IPod accessories IPhone accessories Macintosh peripherals