AirPods Max Development Took 4 Years, According to Former Apple Engineer

[MacRumors]

Apple began working on its recently unveiled AirPods Max headphones over four years ago, according to tweets by a former Apple engineer.

Rumors that Apple was developing high-end over-ear headphones began way back in early 2018, when the first mention of own-brand headphones appeared courtesy of Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

However, the timeline of their development apparently extended much further than that, based on now-deleted tweets by former Apple engineer Dinesh Dave (@appleidinesh).

Weather Line developer Ryan Jones screenshotted images of the tweets and shared them, so there's a record after they were removed. In the tweets, Dave linked to Apple's AirPods Max announcement and claimed that "the last product NDA I signed is finally out!"

Responding to another Twitter user who asked when the NDA was signed, Dave replied: "~4 years."

Apple first launched the AirPods line almost exactly four years ago, in December 2016, after which their popularity grew rapidly. As Jones notes in his tweet, Apple likely saw the "insane demand" for AirPods and decided to explore additional potential products in the now-vast "hearables" category.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1336472420622938118

Prior to their official announcement on Tuesday, subsequent rumors about the headphones focused not only on design and features, but also protracted delays that Apple was said to be experiencing in production. Rumors predicted various launch dates for the headphones that continually missed their mark, from launching in late 2018 to sometime in the second half of 2019.

AirPods Max are now available to pre-order on Apple's website, with a launch date of December 15, although there are already massive wait times for shipping running into March 2021.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that Apple tested at least two versions of the headphones, including a "premium version with leather-like fabrics" – aka AirPods Max – and a "fitness-focused model that uses lighter, breathable materials with small perforations," so we may well see an additional version of the headphones sometime next year.

Article Link: AirPods Max Development Took 4 Years, According to Former Apple Engineer

 

[nvmls]

$137 per year.
Imagine price if it took a decade.

 

[nwcs]

I wonder why he bothered to delete the tweets? There is no prohibition on saying when you signed an NDA.

 

[surf2snow1]

Double the time, double the price.

 

[haruhiko]

I wonder why he bothered to delete the tweets? There is no prohibition on saying when you signed an NDA.

No legal prohibition but probably not very good morally.

 

[Poindexter333]

Yeah, great. All this means is that when they finally come out with a “leather like ear-pad,” the price will probably go up to $699.🤨

 

[nwcs]

No legal prohibition but probably not very good morally.

I’m not seeing any real ethical issue with it, either.

 

[Ghost31]

will be interesting as hell to see the review videos pop up and how Apple justifies twice the price of comparable headphones

 

[Chompineer]

4 years and they didn't once look at the Sony XM3's, Bose 700's/QC's, B&O's, etc, and realize "Man, this price is really stupid, only fools will buy this".

 

[iGüey]

Huhh! Really? So just 4 years to reinvent the wheel! 👍🏻

 

[ouimetnick]

4 years and they didn't once look at the Sony XM3's, Bose 700's/QC's, B&O's, etc, and realize "Man, this price is really stupid, only fools will buy this".

I’m sure they will let the fools buy it, and once the supply of fools run dry, they will lower the price accordingly or discontinue it. They lowered the price of HomePod once demand slowed and discontinued the $18,000 Apple Watch gold model.

 

[MarchyStar]

4 years and they didn't once look at the Sony XM3's, Bose 700's/QC's, B&O's, etc, and realize "Man, this price is really stupid, only fools will buy this".

Enough fools to push the delivery times into March 2020. Longest I can recall of any Apple product ever released.

Sounds like sound business pricing to me!

 

[ouimetnick]

Enough fools to push the delivery times into March 2020. Longest I can recall of any Apple product.

Sounds like sound business pricing to me!

Sounds like the rumors of production issues were real and supply is severely constrained.

 

[iphonehype]

4 years, I would have expected a nice design! I've ordered mine, lets see how it compares to my Bose QC35 otherwise, it'll be returned!

 

[MarchyStar]

Sounds like the rumors of production issues were real and supply is severely constrained.

Haha touché

 

[iEnvy]

I wonder why Apple had vague charts demonstrating the M1 chip against the competition but for these headphones, there's none of that but just more ambiguity. 🤔

 

[Mr._Wonderful]

$549!!! Is there no limit to how high prices can be?
No doubt many will be sold at that price point but then the price will fall. Be patient.

 

[Nozuka]

Apple seems to be testing how high they can go with every new product now...

I'm surprised the Macbook Air (M1) is not more expensive... will probably happen with the redesign.

 

[bobob]

iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods... the peanut gallery misunderstands and underestimates Apple product at launch.

Rinse and repeat.

(It's like betting against James Cameron.)

 

[locrumo]

We hope it no needs to replace the ear cushions after a year (BoseQC35) not covered in warranty...

 

[neuropsychguy]

will be interesting as hell to see the review videos pop up and how Apple justifies twice the price of comparable headphones

That's assuming this competes with the $250 - $350 headphones and not the $500 - $1000 headphones. We don't know where they are supposed to compete (and maybe Apple doesn't know) but it's too soon to know if these are overpriced and destined for a quiet demise like the Power Mac G4 Cube or the Gold Apple Watch Edition or are priced high but fairly given their performance (like the Pro Display XDR).

Note: I'm not going to buy them. I don't spend hundreds of dollars on headphones (I have a set of AirPods Pro but I only paid $90 for them new [not a reproducible deal]). That being said, if Apple wants to sell $550 headphones and people want to buy them, what does that matter to me? I'm not going to judge how people spend their money; I only need to worry about how I spend mine.

 

[ruslan120]

The wisemen and scientists across the lands marveled at their latest accomplishment.

They had asked themselves if they could, and alas never if they should.

 

[EchoplexSE]

$549 is a lot of money, however I have my Sony XM2's and they have been fantastic but I cannot stand for the life of me the touch controls (on the XM2s they cannot be disabled) and the plastic squeaky built quality. The latter is a minor quibble but I would happily pay 2x the price for something that is make out of some nice materials.

 

[bobmans]

$549 is a lot of money, however I have my Sony XM2's and they have been fantastic but I cannot stand for the life of me the touch controls (on the XM2s they cannot be disabled) and the plastic squeaky built quality. The latter is a minor quibble but I would happily pay 2x the price for something that is make out of some nice materials.

I agree with you.
I don't like the plastic feeling of my Bose headphones and I don't mind paying a premium price for premium build materials. 550$ is still a hard pill to swallow but imo it's worth it for the build materials we're getting (assuming audio quality is great also ofc).

 

[swingerofbirch]

4 years to scrub off the Beats logo.