The original HomePod in 2018 was not a successful product, but over the last couple years I've noticed two things that really got kick-started with the HomePod that we now see in basically every Apple product.

The first thing is speaker quality. The HomePod was all about sound quality, and since then you can see major improvements in sound in basically everything from iPads to MacBooks to iPhones. Dave2D just put out a video asking why MacBook Pro speakers are so far ahead of even the best Windows laptops, for example.

The other thing is high quality power cables. For many years, it was common to hear people complain about the quality of cables for charging up Apple devices, and it was very common to see people with dangerously-frayed connectors because the cheap plastic cable just didn't hold up to real world use. I forget the specific review, but I heard one reviewer say something like "and you get a really nice braided power cable, which you'd expect from an Apple device," in their MacBook Pro review. It may be expected now, but oh boy was it not something you could expect even a few years ago.

Anyway, this may not be the most exciting thought in the Apple ecosystem today, and maybe someone is going to "well actually" me on when these trends started. If you think these trends started elsewhere in the Apple lineup, let me know on Twitter.