“Inventec Corp, one of the two assemblers for Apple Inc’s HomePod, has started shipping the US company’s long-awaited ‘smart’” speaker with an initial shipment of about 1 million units, industry sources said,” Lauly Li reports for the Taipei Times.
“‘The Taiwanese company has begun HomePod shipments. However, revenue contribution from the product to Inventec is expected to be limited this quarter, as the initial shipment is not large,’ a source in HomePod’s supply chain told the Taipei Times by telephone on condition of anonymity,” Li reports. “Hon Hai Precision Industry Co is the other assembler of HomePods. HomePod shipments this year are expected to reach between 10 million and 12 million units, with Inventec and Hon Hai each fulfilling half of the orders, the source said.”
“Apple unveiled its first voice-controlled smart speaker during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June last year. HomePod was previously scheduled to hit the markets before the end of last year, but Apple in November issued a statement saying that it needed more time before the product is ready for customers,” Li reports. “The delay in HomePod’s launch was caused by the fine-tuning of software and hardware integration, said another industry source who also declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.”
“As the companies in HomePod’s supply chain received a shipment notice from Apple at the beginning of this month,” Li reports, “it is believed that the product is to hit the markets soon, the second source said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’ll be interesting to see how Apple advertises HomePod once it finally hits the market.
SEE ALSO:
Alexa is killing Siri at CES 2018, and HomePod, if it ever ships, isn’t going to make a difference – January 9, 2018
Apple product delays have more than doubled under CEO Tim Cook – January 5, 2018
At Tim Cook’s Apple, Steve Jobs is long gone, and so is the ‘it just works’ ethos – December 19, 2017
Echo Dot was Amazon’s Black Friday – Cyber Monday bestseller as Apple’s delayed HomePod waits for 2018 release date – November 28, 2017
Apple’s late, delayed, limited HomePod is looking more and more like something I don’t want – November 27, 2017
Why Apple’s HomePod is three years behind Amazon’s Echo – November 21, 2017
Under ‘operations genius’ Tim Cook, product delays and other problems are no longer unusual for Apple – November 20, 2017
Apple delays HomePod release to early 2018 – November 17, 2017
Apple CEO Tim Cook: The ‘operations genius’ who never has enough products to sell at launch – October 23, 2017
Apple reveals HomePod smart home music speaker – June 5, 2017
I imagine that being a bugger to dust.
The HomePod bass driver is reported to have a throw of 20mm, which is an astonishing range for such a small speaker. It should be able to move enough air to blow the dust away all by itself.
As an aside, I was once working in a studio where we were playing whale songs recorded from real life. I was a bit puzzled because I noticed a draught blowing in my face, but all the doors were closed ( studio doors are airtight ). Further investigation revealed that it only happened when the whale sounds were playing and the draught was coming from the speakers about ten feet away. There was a lot of inaudible ( to humans ) ultra-low frequency content in those recordings and when I took the front cover off the monitor speakers, the bass drivers were moving over an insane range.
Just use the soft brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner. Even easier if you attach a flexible hose first.
How much?????
Is Apple pricing themselves out of the market?
Doesn’t Apple always price itself out of the market?
I can’t ever remember any Apple product being launched without people saying how Apple’s item was expensive compared to alternatives. But despite that, Apple somehow manages to sell hundreds of millions of products.
Looking forward to the SoundPod, assuming its sound quality equals or exceeds my mature and much loved HK Sound Sticks.
Not planning on buying, but I do want to hear them. So when will they be in the store?
Can’t wait to get one!! Price seems entirely reasonable if sound quality is as reported. Siri features of whatever quality will be pure “bonus.” For me, flawless AirPlay, streaming, and WiFi are much more critical. Too often AirPlay is glitchy or cludgy (though been getting better, but too slowly).
Home what…?
Only option is to market as a high end speaker given Siri sucks so bad. Unless, they’ve improved Siri exponentially and I don’t see that today. Google and Amazon are driving the smart speaker market.
People have to be out of their minds to willingly install spying machines in their homes. Amazon is creating a “smart alarm” with cameras that will watch you while you sleep! Maybe it’s a good thing that Siri isn’t so great at understanding what you are saying?
Sonos One has good sound, Alexa and will support Google and Airplay. Good quality, agnostic smart assistant and lower price are hard to beat. Perhaps Apple should add Alexa skills and compatibility to HomePod to compete. There are more low cost Alexa compatible devices. Apple could manage the skills through Siri. Just add the Alexa skill links to Siri.