Apple Sets Smart Speakers Debut Directions mark down the following in the below article of Apple Inc. Tool 1: Begin Sentences with Subjects and Verbs. Make meaning early, then let weaker elements branch to the right Tool 2: Order words for emphasis. Place strong words at the beginning and at the end. Tool 3: Activate your verbs. Strong verbs create action, save words, and reveal players. Tool 4: Be passive-aggressive. Use the passive verbs to showcase the victim of action. Tool 5: Watch those adverbs. Use them to change the meaning of the verb. Tool 6: Take it easy on the ings. Prefer the simple present or past. Apple Inc. will start selling its voice activated speaker HomePod in store in Stores Feb. 9, after a launch, after a launch delay that cost the company sales during the critical holiday shopping season. The tech giant, in announcing the sales date Tuesday, didnt explain why the product missed a promised December ship date The HomePod can be preordered online beginning Friday. Market leaders Amazon.com and Alphabet Inc. continued to sell Echo and Google Home devices during the holidays, while Apple worked on a rival product it said wasnt ready for sale. Amazon was the first major tech company to enter the smart-speaker market in late 2014, opening a wide lead by selling more than 20 million Echos even before tallying sales for the recent Christmas season. Its hockey puck-size Echo Dot is estimated to account for more than half of Amazons speaker unit sales, largely because of its lower price, which dropped to $30 during the holidays before rising to $50. The smart-speaker shipments world-wide are expected to rise more than 50% this year to 56 million units, according to the market researcher Canalys. The U.S. will account for more than half of those sales, it said. At $349, the HomePod costs considerably more than Amazons latest Echo and a Google Home, whose list prices are $100 and $129, respectively. Apple has tried to differentiate its speaker by emphasizing sound quality, particularly when playing music, over the devices ability to perform tasks. Voice-activated speakers have moved to the forefront in a battle over what some technology analysts see as the future of computing. Virtual Assistants such as Apples Siri, Amazons Alexa, Microsoft Corps Cortana and Google Assistant are expected to be embedded in more than four billion consumer devices by the end of 2018, allowing people to perform simple computing tasks by voice such as searching for information or turning off lights, according to the research firm IHS Markit. Apples Siri has a much wider presence by virtue of being featured on more than a billion iPhones and iPads. However, Amazon and Google are aiming to catch up by cutting deals to put their assistants into such products as Toyota Motor Corp. televisions. They also offer greater functionality; Amazons Alexa, for example, can perform thousands of commands compared with hundreds by Siri. The HomePod was the latest in a series of Apple products that faced delays. The AirPods earbuds missed their promised ship date last year, and the Apple Watch, promised in early 2015, arrived late in April of that year. Apple said the HomePod initially will be available in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, and will arrive in France and Germany this spring.