HomePod Supplies Limited at Launch, but Foxconn Coming on Board in 2018 to Increase Production

Inventec Appliances has been a rumored supplier for Apple's HomePod smart speaker since before the device was announced at WWDC in June, and now the manufacturer has indicated that supplies for HomePod might be limited at launch, in line with most Apple product launches (via Nikkei).

The news came from Inventec Appliances president David Ho during a press conference today. Although his comments never specifically mentioned "HomePod," the estimated time frame given for the release of the product -- late in 2017 -- and its description as a high-profile "smart home device," suggest it to be Apple's upcoming speaker. At WWDC, Apple confirmed that the HomePod would launch sometime in December.

HomePod on shelf
Now, Ho has stated that the HomePod's contribution to the company's revenue for this year will be "fairly limited" -- which is expected given the device is launching so late in the year -- with optimistic improvements to profit gained from HomePod sales predicted for early 2018. One analyst speculated that the number of HomePod units shipped in December 2017 will be around 500,000.

“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 told analysts and reporters during an earnings conference.

“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%,” said Arthur Liao, an analyst at Taipei-based Fubon Securities.

In 2018, Apple will look to open up HomePod manufacturing to more than just Inventec Appliances, according to one of Nikkei's sources, who stated that Apple is planning to add Foxconn into the HomePod supply chain next year. This will result in Inventec Appliances and Foxconn receiving a "split" of HomePod orders and boosting production for the smart home speaker, following the limited initial launch.

Inventec Appliance's total smart home and connected devices shipments are expected to grow to between 70 and 75 million units by the end of 2017, but company officials didn't specifically break down the numbers related to the Apple products it makes.

In addition to HomePod, Inventec Appliances also manufactures Apple's AirPods, which have been particularly difficult for many users to purchase since the wireless earphones launched last December. Earlier in August, the estimated shipping date for AirPods finally lowered to four weeks from six weeks, which had been the shipping estimate for the previous eight months.

Related Roundup: HomePod
Buyer's Guide: HomePod (Neutral)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Monday June 30, 2025 1:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
A18 Pro Chip

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options that include silver, blue, pink, and yellow. MacRumors...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
macbook air spacegray purple

Apple Planning to Launch Low-Cost MacBook Powered By iPhone Chip

Monday June 30, 2025 3:20 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In an article published on X, Kuo explained that the device will feature a 13-inch display and the A18 Pro chip, making it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. The A18 Pro chip debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. To date, all Apple silicon Macs have contained M-series...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...
maxresdefault

Five Features Coming to AirPods Pro 3

Friday June 27, 2025 10:52 am PDT by
Apple hasn't updated the AirPods Pro since 2022, and the earbuds are due for a refresh. We're counting on a new model this year, and we've seen several hints of new AirPods tucked away in Apple's code. Rumors suggest that Apple has some exciting new features planned that will make it worthwhile to upgrade to the latest model. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Heal...
replay all time playlist apple music

Apple Music Debuts All-New Personalized Playlist

Monday June 30, 2025 7:16 am PDT by
As part of its 10-year celebrations of Apple Music, Apple today released an all-new personalized playlist that collates your entire listening history. The playlist, called "Replay All Time," expands on Apple Music's existing Replay features. Previously, users could only see their top songs for each individual calendar year that they've been subscribed to Apple Music, but now, Replay All...

Top Rated Comments

TurboPGT! Avatar
103 months ago
A "news worthy" article would be: Apple Product Launching Without Constrained Supply.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nunyabinez Avatar
103 months ago
The ignorance of internet armchair CEOs is astounding.

When establishing a supply chain, you have to optimize around what the expected average consumption will be for the foreseeable future.

Do you guys really think that there are dozens of companies that could tool up to produce a product for Apple for a short time?

And if it was you, how would you feel about this request? "Hey we need you to setup a factory to produce this product, but just for the first three weeks, then we won't need you anymore. You don't mind investing in equipment and training for just a couple of weeks worth of production do you?"

Apple figures out what they think the on-going rate will be and then builds up an initial supply to try to meet the giant wave that happens at launch. They could meet that demand by delaying the launch for several months while they store up units in warehouses.

I bet you guys would prefer that they delay the launch a couple of months so you could get yours on launch day. Oh wait, isn't that the same as launching when they have at least some supply and then filling as quick as they can? Plus they don't have all that money tied up in inventory sitting in boxes doing nothing.

Apple is not bad at supply chain, they are excellent. Macrumors posters are bad at understanding operations management principles.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macpanzer Avatar
103 months ago
Limited at launch. Where have we heard that before... oh, right, with every Apple product released in the last few years. And the head of the company is supposed to be a supply chain genius.

Sarcasm aside, I really don't get how can they not manage anymore.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Madmic23 Avatar
103 months ago
I'm pretty sure "limited supply at launch" is code for "Make you you preorder so we can say we sold out in the first day."

Nothing makes people want something more than being told it's rare and hard to find.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ApfelKuchen Avatar
103 months ago
What even *is* this Home Pod? Do you need two of these, for stereo? Or do they come in pairs?
https://www.apple.com/homepod/

They'll be sold as single units. You won't need two for a stereo effect - each unit has 7 directional tweeters to steer sound around the room. If you add a second unit to a room, the pair is supposed to generate an even better stereo effect.

Siri/Smart Home is a big part of this, bigger than Apple is stating currently for marketing purposes (which is focusing on music and audio quality as the primary distinguishing characteristic between this and Amazon Echo). Ultimately, Amazon can also bring out a higher-priced, "audiophile" Echo, so I'd expect Apple's marketing points to change over time, with the competition.

I know I'd only buy one to start. If I buy a second, it'd likely be to extend Siri to a second room, rather than add stereo to a single room. Since they're wireless, a unit from a bedroom might be temporarily moved to the living room for the sake of a party. Since Siri's ability to hear is part of the effectiveness of the system, I suspect that in a large room the units would provide better service by being placed at opposite ends of the room, much farther away than is typical for good stereo separation. The effect in that case might be closer to surround sound than stereo.

------
Back to the whole 'limited quantities' thing. Anybody can produce a large purchase order in anticipation of sales, and if necessary build (or in Apple's case, finance) the manufacturing capability to deliver huge quantities on Day One. It can be a boom/bust strategy, as book publishers can tell you. If the potential blockbuster fails to delight readers, you'll soon see the book on the remainders table, marked down to $5 or less. As you know, Apple's not big on close-outs.

Apple does not place huge bets on new products. It's one of the reasons they have $260 billion in cash and marketable securities, and that the gross profit margin on most items is around 38% - if you over-produce, profit margin is diluted, cash reserves evaporate, and excess inventory weighs down the balance sheet.

Apple's is a conservative, long-term strategy. They're not focused on artificially boosting quarterly earnings by front-loading sales, exhausting all pent-up demand within the first few days in hopes that the word-of-mouth will be good enough to get more people into the store. They'd much rather gauge word-of-mouth following product release, and ramp up production if the product is warmly received. They're justifiably confident that the vast majority of customers who want Apple's latest and greatest will wait, rather than settle on another company's product. Sales deferred is still money in the bank.

Apple management has long been criticized for not following conventional business wisdom. Steve Jobs received his fair share over the years, and his unconventional approach is one reason there is a Cult of Steve. Tim Cook is following Apple's well-proven playbook. At least to my eye, he's doing a great job of executing.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TurboPGT! Avatar
103 months ago
Why do Apple suck so bad at supply? Like...I don't get it. They're running out of excuses with the cash pile they're sitting on. Other companies seem to manage just fine with supply.
Who?

No one else does what Apple does.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)