Apple homepod may be available soon

According to information provided by "industry sources" to the Taipei Times, Inventec, supplier of Apple's HomePod, would have already made an initial shipment "of around one million units ", so the smart speaker of the Apple could be put up for sale sooner rather than later.

HomePod, the wait that will soon come to an end

At the beginning of this January, Apple sent a shipping notice to companies in the HomePod supply chain. Now that the first provider has responded to the notice, one of those sources has stated that the HomePod should be launching "soon. "

As the first batch of HomePod devices arrives at Apple, the company is supposed to put them up for sale directly. However, the truth is that Apple has not yet announced a specific release date for its smart speaker whose arrival has been delayed. On the other hand, it did announce that the HomePod would debut in "early 2018" although, traditionally, Apple's definition of "early" covers from January to April.

As you can imagine, the initial availability of the HomePod is expected to be limited throughout the first quarter due to the low amount of initial shipping. This coincides with Inventec's statement last August, when it warned that supplies for HomePod may be limited at launch, as has been the case for most Apple product launches. However, HomePod shipments for the full year 2018 are expected to grow between 10 and 12 million units after launch.

The launch of the HomePod involves Apple's entry into the smart speaker segment, currently dominated by the Amazon Echo and, to a lesser extent, by the Google Home. However, as stated during the product launch, the HomePod is more focused on music than its rivals, including high-quality speakers and microphones, spatial recognition, touch controls and more, all powered by an A8 chip.