Should't have rushed to announced them. Waste of momentum big time.
AirPods were originally slated to launch in October, but the wireless earphones were later delayed. Apple said it needed "a little more time" before they are ready for customers, and it has yet to provide an official update since.
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While the exact reason for the delay remains unclear, a person familiar with the development of AirPods told The Wall Street Journal that Apple's troubles appear to be related to its "efforts to chart a new path for wireless headphones," in addition to resolving what happens when users lose one of the earpieces or the battery dies.Last month, Barclays analysts said AirPods should enter production in December. Their research note said quantities would be limited to between 10 and 15 million AirPods to start. Meanwhile, an alleged email response from Apple CEO Tim Cook said AirPods should begin shipping over the "next few weeks."
With just two weeks remaining in the holiday shopping season, some believe Apple should now wait until the new year to launch AirPods, in line with an early rumor about a January 2017 launch. The wireless earphones remain listed as both "coming soon" and "currently unavailable" on different sections of Apple's website.
Article Link: AirPods Delay Attributed to Apple Ensuring Both Earpieces Receive Audio at Same Time
Here come the people complaining about Apple taking too long to test something before release...
Sentence him to walk home with 2 Oral-B pieces hanging from his ears...Tim Cook should really step down. Whoever he put in charge of product testing/development should be fired.
Anyone have a mirror to the article without the greedy paywall?
"every single non-bluetooth project stays on schedule." I want to live and work where you think you live and work.I'm a hardware engineer. It seems like every single bluetooth project I work on gets delayed for various reasons (unreliable smartphone bluetooth drivers) where every single non-bluetooth project stays on schedule.
So why are the Beats X still delayed then? The buds are wired together...
Tim Cook should really step down. Whoever he put in charge of product testing/development should be fired.
This rumor sounds like it was originated from China and was translated wrong. Apple's entire approach involves independent pairing and operation of the Airpod if one should not be paired. It's either a supply issue or they're still tweaking software last minute.It's disappointing that they've been delayed but it's for the right reasons. A bug like this is a very huge deal.
I am curious why they never sorted this out in development, it would seem to me this would be one of the first things to overcome in the design.
RF Multipathing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipath_propagation) causes the strongest signal to not travel in a straight line. Remember the shortest distance is though a couple feet of flesh which is which is 50% water. Water absorbs RF extremely well and will attenuate the signal.This makes no physical sense what so ever. These buds are, what a foot apart and bluetooth happens at the speed of ***** light. Receiving the signal at the same time is nonsense. If it is two independent signals and the problem is that the earbuds aren't receiving the right signals at the right time, its because the right signals aren't being broadcast at the right time.
And honestly, how is such a simple problem such a huge obstacle for Apple? For how long have we been broadcasting simultaneous stereo radio signals?
It's disappointing they're delayed but I can wait. People are freaking out over this. I'll keep saying it until it gets into people's thick heads. If they released them in October and had issues, people would get grumpy. Apple made a mistake announcing these when they did but admitted they needed more time. Guess what? They're PEOPLE. People make mistakes. Get over it.