I picked up a HomePod a couple days ago (December 2018 purchase). Its serial number reports that it was manufactured in the first week of February 2018. It gives a W5 in the serial number, which supposedly indicates the manufacture date. Does this sound right? Has this thing really been sitting on the shelf that long?
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HomePod New HomePod was manufactured in Feb 2018?
- Thread starter W.MlL
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I doubt it's been sitting the shelf since February. Some of the serial number decoders are not the most accurate. They started selling in feb 2018 so the manufacturing would've been even earlier than that.
Sure, they were manufacturing earlier than that. I know in December 2017 they were manufacturing. But at 10 months after release I am surprised they have not moved into stuff manufactured after that point
Who says they haven’t? As I said those serial decoder websites are highly unreliable especially on products outside of Macs iPhones and iPads
Never would have bought a HomePod at $350 but, Best Buy has them for $250 so I jumped on it. I have Apple Music so I’m loving it.
Yep, $250 is the sweet spot I think. $270 is the most I have ever paid for any of mine. Would be great if they could get them down to $200.
It was announced in June 2017 but didn’t ship until February 2018 missing the 2017 holiday season. All the reports seemed to indicate the hardware was done and the delay was software. I don’t know if that serial number checker is accurate but it makes sense that production was way ahead because of the delays.
I didn't look up the serial numbers on mine, but the two that I purchased both had iOS 11.2.5 installed on them when I first set them up yesterday which was the original HomePod software release. So I'm assuming they had been sitting in the warehouse for a while.
Guys, any of you mind looking up your serial numbers and posting what your manufacture date is? I'm just interested in seeing what the dates are for curiosity.
You can learn the meaning behind serial number here: https://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/16/apple-tweaks-serial-number-format-with-new-macbook-pro/
Here's a chart where you can double-check your accuracy: http://www.3u.com/tutorial/articles/5151/what-can-you-read-from-your-iphone-serial-number
You can learn the meaning behind serial number here: https://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/16/apple-tweaks-serial-number-format-with-new-macbook-pro/
Here's a chart where you can double-check your accuracy: http://www.3u.com/tutorial/articles/5151/what-can-you-read-from-your-iphone-serial-number
Well even the chart isn’t very accurate. According to the chart in the second link, W5 means first part of 2018 but they have the 5th week as 7/29-8/4. That makes no sense.
Lancetx, mind posting just the 4th and 5th letters in the serial numbers for your two HomePods?
Hm. that puts them in early to mid december 2017 manufacture. But iOS 11.2.5 wasn't released in final form until the end of January 2018. iOS 11.2.5 Beta came out on 13 December 2017.
I always assumed the iOS version is determined by manufacture date but it seems odd it would have a version that was finalized after manufacture.
Yeah that would seem odd. It wouldn't surprise me at all though if Nebraska Furniture Mart still had stock last week that was left over from the initial February launch.
there are 52/53 weeks in a year. So I believe that chart (rather confusingly) put the 26/27 weeks for the first half of the year in column 3 and the 26/27 weeks for the second half of the year in column 4. So what you have to do is determine in column 2 what half of the year you are operating in and then depending on that go to either column 3 or column 4.
So 7/29-8/4 would only apply if your manufacture date was in the 2nd half of the year. If the 2nd column puts your manufacture date in the 1st half of the year then your date is the 5th week of the year (i.e., 3rd column) or the week of January 29th.
Wow, I don’t care that much. Both of mine sound incredible. No batteries in them to sit around as someone else mentioned. So doesn’t really matter to me if they were made 10 years ago.
It's more an exercise of learning about Apple manufacturing than caring about when it was made. It can also help when/if there are problems identified in future manufacture runs of some Apple product for warranty purposes etc.
Ordered my white HomePod last week from Apple online store germany
Serial is X7
so is August or september 2018 made
Serial is X7
so is August or september 2018 made
Interesting. I suspect by ordering for Germany you got a newer manufacture date as the earlier runs went to USA and UK.
Gotta say HomePod sounds good. But man is Siri unable to answer simple questions like what software version are you running. Plus I cannot believe Apple release this thing with it unable to do voice command play of music tracks that are physically on an iPhone. That's unacceptable IMHO.