Apple's Siri home speaker now in manufacturing, may not ship until later in 2017

Apple's rumored Amazon Echo competitor, based on Siri, has already entered manufacturing — but may not ship until "later in the year," sometime after the company's WWDC 2017 keynote on June 5, according to a report.

The product could still be announced during the keynote, sources told Bloomberg on Wednesday. Aside from Siri, other features of the speaker are expected to include use as a HomeKit hub, and higher-quality audio — specifically, virtual surround technology, and louder and crisper output.

The device may also include sensors that detect room acoustics and adjust levels automatically, akin to a more convenient version of Sonos's Trueplay system.

The speaker will reportedly lack a screen however, giving an edge in that department to Amazon's Echo Show, and the upcoming Essential Home.

Bloomberg's sources added that as rumored, Taiwanese manufacturer Inventec will handle assembly, and that Apple has several other possible hardware announcements for WWDC. These include new iPads, and refreshed MacBooks, possibly even faster Pro and Air models.

Apple hasn't used WWDC to introduce new hardware since 2013. That may now be necessary for timing issues however, as well as an increasingly full product slate. Aside from new devices, Apple is also expected to show off new versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

57 Comments

foggyhill 10 Years · 4767 comments

About 7 years ago

If they're really NOW in manufacturing, they're shipping real soon (unless they are prototypes which would be unlikely).
Apple doesn't stop up products 4 months in advance for sales, would make no sense at all to do that.

mike1 10 Years · 3437 comments

"Sometime" after the WWDC keynote could mean June 6th or December. If it's really "in manufacturing" (is that even a thing) now, I would expect shipments to begin over the Summer.

longpath 20 Years · 401 comments

I'm hoping this proves true. It always seemed less than idea for a HomeKit control center to be on a portable device, and since Apple declined to make the Mac the control center, this seems like a much better option.

williejobs 7 Years · 6 comments

Wait a second, something does not sound correct.

Why would Phil come out and say these speakers need a display to be truly functional? I don't believe the report about no display.

razorpit 17 Years · 1793 comments

longpath said:

I'm hoping this proves true. It always seemed less than idea for a HomeKit control center to be on a portable device, and since Apple declined to make the Mac the control center, this seems like a much better option.

Genuine question, because to be honest I'm confused by all of this. I thought the AppleTV was suppose to be the bridge/control center for HomeKit. Are you saying there would now be 2 devices? One portable and one not?