HomePod is coming to France and Germany this spring

In addition to launching on Friday, February 9 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, HomePod is scheduled to arrive in France and Germany this spring.

“HomePod will arrive in France and Germany this spring,” the Cupertino tech giant wrote in today’s press release announcing HomePod availability.

This is the staggered HomePod release we were promised back in the summer last year, when Apple first previewed HomePod during its Worldwide Developers Conference. “Next year we’ll start bringing it around the world,” said Phil Schiller during the WWDC 2017 keynote.

Apple did not say how much HomePod will cost in France and Germany.

As a guidance, the wireless speaker is priced at $349 in the United States, £319 in the United Kingdom and $499 in Australia.

French and German fans should start saving money for their HomePod with the expected launch in their respective countries between March and June. France and Germany will also file as the first HomePod countries in which English isn’t the primary language.

If Siri on Apple TV is an indication, customers there should be able to use a localized version of Siri on their HomePod with full support for French and German.

As I mentioned earlier, HomePod will first launch via Apple.com, Apple retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia on Friday, February 9, with orders beginning this coming Friday, January 26.

The company also said today that the Siri-powered wireless speaker will support multi-room audio with AirPlay 2 later this year via a free software update and revealed that Siri is now being actively used on more than half a billion devices.

HomePod is compatible with iPhone 5s or later, iPad Pro, iPad Air or later, iPad mini 2 or later or the sixth-generation iPod touch with iOS 11.2.5 or later.