While selling out is the norm for a major Apple product, it’s not the norm for a product to only sell out on the final day of pre-orders, rather than just a few days after they begin. In this case, people seem to have waited for reviews to drop before making a purchase, perhaps because there were a lot of open questions about how the speaker will work — and few people had ever even heard it. But after reviews went up, and reviewers largely praised its sound quality, interested customers may have been more inclined to place an order.
The HomePod was never preordained to be a blockbuster for Apple. Sure, the smart speaker has received overwhelmingly positive marks for sound quality, but the product is a bit late to the game, after both Amazon and Google have launched major offensives. The company also got dinged for its relatively limited Siri functionality at launch.
Other retailers do appear to have units in stock, however, and you may still be able to waltz into an Apple Store and pick one up tomorrow, depending on your location. It’s also tough to say whether this is an indication solely of strong demand or partially a product of limited supply. By one metric, however, Apple’s first assistant-focused device seems to just fine, thank you very much — or at the very least, living up to the company’s expectations. Apple’s site is currently sold out of the product, a day ahead of launch.
Keep in mind that the company delayed release of the product by about two or so months, as it tweaked the final hardware. That could well have played a role in Apple’s production capacity for the first-generation product.
Largely positive reviews have no doubt given the HomePod a boost ahead of launch. Keep in mind that our own review referred to the product in no uncertain terms as “easily the best sounding mainstream smart speaker ever” — a high bar, indeed. But that’s dampened a bit by some mitigating factors including a $349 price tag and being locked into both iOS and Apple Music.
Those who got in early, however, have started getting shipping notifications for delivery.
