Apple might not ship very many HomePods in 2017, report says
HomePod manufacturer Inventec Appliances will only ship a limited number of speakers this year, according to a report.
Apple HomePod speakers might only be available in limited quantities in 2017, according to a Nikkei Asian Review report published Monday.
"Inventec Appliances will likely only ship some 500,000 units of HomePod this year, and the device's contribution to the group's revenue will be less than 1 percent," said Arthur Liao, an analyst at Taipei-based Fubon Securities in the Nikkei Asian Review article.
Inventec Appliances manufacturers a variety of Apple products, including AirPods -- and, reportedly, the upcoming HomePod speaker.
"We will finally ship the smart home device this year, but its contribution will be fairly limited and hopefully that will improve next year," Inventec Appliances President David Ho reportedly told analysts, according to Nikkei Asian Review.
We've been waiting for a standalone voice-control speaker from Apple for a long time now. Fortunately, Apple's Siri-based speaker -- announced at this year's WWDC -- is expected to hit stores this December. But it's already lagging behind Amazon and Google, both of which already sell smart voice-control speakers.
Neither Apple nor Inventec Appliances immediately responded to CNET's request for comment.
Read more about the devices that work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomeKit.
