To whom? Certainly not to experienced and savvy investors.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
HomePod Supplies Limited at Launch, but Foxconn Coming on Board in 2018 to Increase Production
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
To whom? Certainly not to experienced and savvy investors.
ERM. Excuse me. What I think is most important.
[doublepost=1502733877][/doublepost]
Whilst Echo is a great product and was one of the first of its kind (I've owned one over a year), the service in and of itself has become notably worse since launch. They've had big issues with radio streaming this past month too, and Alexa frequently can't interpret very simple requests. But it's a great product if you want an AI assistant that doesn't cost the Earth, and also aren't bothered about having amazing sound for your music. The speaker in the Echo is capable, but it depends if you're used to something better.
LOL, I like your response. But the other commenter is right-- you sound like someone opining on something for which you have no baseline of experience. The fact is, virtually every company has supply constraints when they launch a totally new physical product design. As it happens, Apple might be the only company to which you, personally, are lavishing this much attention.
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.
Maybe because Apple sells more with world wide launches. They also have higher qa standards.
Don't see it myself, and I own and still use an iPod Hi-Fi. The HomePod is an actual technology platform. The Hi-Fi was just a well-made shelf speaker with a built-in iPod dock.
The more I think about this, the more I think I can put the Paradigms in storage, can the old head unit, and use two of these and my PDR-10 with a low-pass filter to create some pretty good music and viewing sound while only losing some surround performance. Oh yeah... and gain back some real estate in my little apartment living room!
I hope they sound as good as the reviewers have been saying...
Always room for improvement, but we hear the same limited storage every year....... I don't believe the ramping up..
Since you can that, but more people will just buy them, and stick to back to "limited stock" again very quickly.
Doesn't matte if its just homepod, iPhone, or Mac's... they all have issues. The only one not reallly that supply limited is probably AppleTV and Mac mini.... (yes, there is a reason to take up the "not popular" category).. You'll get it sooner
Since you can that, but more people will just buy them, and stick to back to "limited stock" again very quickly.
Doesn't matte if its just homepod, iPhone, or Mac's... they all have issues. The only one not reallly that supply limited is probably AppleTV and Mac mini.... (yes, there is a reason to take up the "not popular" category).. You'll get it sooner
Apple never wants to bet the whole farm on entirely new product. So they limit production "just in case" nobody likes it or nobody buys it. Plus you know Apple is already working on the Home Pod 2 and when that comes out in 2019 nobody is going to want the original Home Pods
No one knows for certain yet, but it (apparently) is more of a Sonos competitor than Alexa or Google Home. From going through the released firmware it can do stereo and it will cost around $350 dollars for one unit. I think a Sonos Series 3 speaker is about the same, or a little cheaper, in cost. In both cases that's per speaker, so a stereo setup is going to be $700 plus for either.
The question is whether it does some/most/all of what Alexa/Google does, and if it can do surround sound, and if so, what else do you need to buy. Note: I have NOT seen anything from a reputable source about it being a 3.1, 5.1 or better system, just rumors. Which is what I'm repeating without any basis now.
[doublepost=1502749035][/doublepost]As far as Apple not being able to buy/produce enough components, some of that is due to trying to cram 6 lbs of stuff in a 5 lbs pail. I'm not blaming Apple for this, as everyone seems to be trying to out thin and out shrink everyone else, but it does cause production problems. And you don't want to build a 10 year plus manufacturing system for a 6 month problem. Especially if the manufacturing plant is building electronics, which evolve so quickly that you need to do major upgrades on a sub 5 year basis.
The companies they are buying from are also in the same boat. Upgrade now and perhaps you can't afford to upgrade later, AND you have your other customers that you need to take care of. If it was easy not only would Apple be doing it, but so would everyone else. The fact that no one can keep their high demand phones and consumer electronics in stock right after release means its not as easy as people here seem to think.
What I really want/need is a HomePod lite without the speakers (basically an Echo Dot). I already have a surround system and a new(ish) AVR, so all I really need is the Siri/microphone capabilities.
Probably because the volume sell versus other companies is far far greater... Its the suppliers causing the short fall, sure they could get more but they also didn't get their cash pile spending their money recklessly. They could do better, and I hope they do soon. Perhaps when they start manufacturing in the USA
Stereo probably isn't much of a stretch. Surround sound probably would be.If both speakers are aware of each other then splitting the sound into left and right channels is already mostly done by the encoded song, which already has to designate left from right channel. The speakers would just have to be assigned as either a left or right, and only play music designated for the channel that they have been set to.
Except for bass, but even that isn't a problem, since bass is Omni-directional. Both speakers could play it. That's why most surround sound systems have a base "box" that you can place where you want. Extending that a little farther, I guess, and you could have more than 2 channels.
No, not always. Back in the pre-iPhone days when the biggest volume products were iPods, Apple would always stockpile the hell out of those things prior to the announcement. Steve took pride in finishing each announcement with "and it's available... (pause for effect)... today".
Then came the iPhones, which have always been hard to come by initially, but with the exception of the legendary white iPhone 4 and its production problems, nothing ever came close to the AirPods shortage or Apple's apparent inability to address it. It's been a year since the announcement and there's still a 4 week lag.
Is that where things are headed? Replacing Jobs' "and it's available... today!" with "and it's available... hopefully in 6 months for a handful of customers in the US and Canada, and after those have drained the minuscule supplies and hammered availability all the way to 'Ships: 18 weeks', we will possibly start taking pre-orders in a few more select countries, and our goal is that 50% of everyone who wants this product will be able to get hold of one before we announce the new version, which will go on sale in the US 9 months after the announcement..."?
Last edited:
I think the problem is that most of their products are still being developed until the last possible moment. As such, manufacturing cannot begin (at least on certain components) until they're finalized. Then, there's the final QA check, ramp up time, and then full throttle. By having extra suppliers at the start, they could speed up the ramp up but then those suppliers would have to be dropped (news flash: "Apple cuts output") or all suppliers run at 50% (news flash: "Demand lower than suppliers' capacity").
How long have the AirPods been out and I still can't just walk into the store and buy them uggg...... even if I preorder the homepod I can see it not arriving until January or even February. I prodered my Apple Watch at midnight when the preorder went live and didn't get my watch for almost 2 and half months after launch. So frustrating. At least when I preorder my phone I have gotten them all on launch day so that's at least some progress lol.
Last edited:
They're definitely wired.
[doublepost=1502773348][/doublepost]
3.1 and 5.1 refers to the numbers of speakers, not to any particular form of surround sound. Homepod, either one or in a pair, will give you virtual surround as well as virtual stereo.
Yeah, only this isn't going to be much of a "world wide" launch. HomePod is the beginning of a depressing new era where Siri readiness will dictate availability internationally.
It used to be that the only thing preventing Apple from making a product available worldwide on day one was that when it came to iPhones, they needed to work out deals with a gazillion different carriers, plus that every country has its own FCC equivalent that needs to test and approve the phone. Hence the staggered rollouts of iPhone models.
However, starting with the ATV4, Apple began to cripple functionality on non-mobile products for the international market. For well over a year, the mic on the Siri Remote was dead weight in many countries, as for the first time Apple wouldn't allow customers to use an English version of Siri unless their ATV was located in a region where English is the official language. I'm a Swede, but I use the US English version of Siri on my iOS devices and my Mac (why, because Swedish Siri sucks, particularly when it comes to dealing with English song titles or artist names). The ATV won't allow this – Siri remains greyed out until two conditions are met: The selected system language _and_ the selected Siri language must both correspond to the geographical location of the ATV.
It's almost guaranteed that they will destroy the HomePod experience for international users in a similar (or worse) manner, by 1) Keeping them waiting for X number of months while the localized versions of Siri are being fine tuned, and then 2) forcing them to use these non-English editions of Siri (which will still suck even after the supposed fine tuning).
The more Siri-reliant products Apple creates, the more this model will become the manner in which international markets will become acquainted with new Apple hardware: 1) The interminable wait for Siri tweaks, followed by 2) the suckfest created by forcing international customers to interface with Siri's foreign cousins with partial brain damage. American Siri is dumb enough as she is; Her foreign cousins are practically braindead.
Last edited:
They definitely have a power cord. However, they do not require either Ethernet or audio input. https://www.apple.com/homepod/ - scroll to the bottom of the page, to the part that says:
