Apple’s HomePod Could Face Supply Constraints At Launch

Apple’s HomePod speakers were announced earlier this year during WWDC 2017 and was promised to be launched towards the later part of the year. If you were interested in the device and wanted to get your hands on it, you might want to move quickly because in a report from the Nikkei Asian Review (via CNET), supply could be heavily constrained.

According to the report, it seems that they are claiming that the HomePod’s manufacturer Inventec Appliances will only be shipping as many as 500,000 units this year alone, and while it might seem like a lot of units, it apparently only makes up for about 1% of the group’s revenue. Inventec Appliances President David Ho reportedly told analysts, “We will finally ship the smart home device this year, but its contribution will be fairly limited and hopefully that will improve next year.”

Unfortunately in the grander scale of things, 500,000 units isn’t alone for the rest of the world, which means like we said, supply of the speakers could be constrained at launch so you will have to move quickly if you wanted to get one for yourself. Interestingly enough Inventec is also the manufacturer for Apple’s AirPods which are also facing some supply constraints even until today, but hopefully customers will have a slightly easier time with the HomePods.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Audio, Gadgets, Rumors
Tags: AI (Artificial Intelligence), Connected Objects, HomePod, Siri, Speakers