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Who cares.

I have no desire to stick a wireless receiver inside my ear.

Obviously others do care and were looking forward to these being released. You may not be interested in them, so be it. But they were anticipated none the less.
 
Make up your mind. Do we need a visionary and innovator or do we need a product guy? Tim Cook is the product guy and best at supply chain. If he couldn't get a few million of these Airpods built and delivered in time for holidays, no one on Earth could.
Well, right now Tim is neither. Right now he is only good at draining every dollar from the product lines.
Not good at updating products in a timely manner.
Be real, he is no longer in charge of supply lines. His time is spent as CEO.
Meeting with leaders around the world. Making deals for Apple products and Apple facilities in those countries. Hosting fundraisers making sure to position Apple in a good light for the next administration. et al
Though he should be having some "hard" words with his underlings.
 
So you want them to do a Samsung and release electrical products that aren't ready just so they can meet deadlines... mmmm.. not smart that one.

Maybe we want them to release announced products in the time frame they touted that are ready - mmmm - sounds like Keystone Cops this one.

What the hell have all those engineers been doing for so long? Not seeing it in that "pipeline filled with magical products" that Timmy boy keeps spouting off about.
 
I'm assuming they are having an issue with the design. Offering a single size in that form factor seems like it's asking to fall out, unless they release some sort of "accessories" to hold them together.

Well, you put magnets in each one and they draw to each other.

Easy...
 
...

I don't think this is a cause for any valid criticism of Tim Cook. This is a scenario similar to that of the white iPhone 4, which was well within Steve Jobs's time. It's the right thing to do to maintain standards.

Of course it is a cause of valid criticism of Cook - his staff selected the vendor / was responsible for monitoring the vendor compliance with Apple standards / approved the announcements regarding availability / missed the holiday buying season / etc.

The CEO IS responsible.
 
This greatly confuses me. At Apple's event, they were definitely giving out "fresh/clean" pairs of AirPods for all of the guests to try and test out while in the show room. So if that were the case, why are they now delaying the launch of them???
 
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I'm surprised how well some of you are taking it. Obviously there's a lot of hate, but to see even a handful of people trying to spin it positively is shocking ("oh I can wait a few months, there's always beats 3"). It's bad plain and simple. This was a highlight in the iPhone 7 announcement so at worst it should have been just getting enough in stock before the holiday. If they can't even sell them until after it must be something more critical which should have been addressed before September.


Shocking why? They were over optimistic on the launch window, that's business, it happens. I'm not trying to put a "positive" spin on it, you can't, it's disappointing. But there's no point getting up in arms and overreacting over something as fallible as a launch date.

Take me, I make apps, I've released a few over the years. I think maybe two of them were actually finished and on sale within the timeframe I'd set. Why? Because things happen, unexpected things happen and when they do it's far better to deal with them and delay the launch than it is to push ahead with something that's not ready just to meet a deadline.

You need only look at the disaster that was the Note 7 to see what happens when you release a product that's not ready for the market. Wouldn't it have been better overall if Samsung had taken a few more weeks to ensure that product was ready. Or is it more important to get it out unfinished and not fully tested?
 
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There is no way that Apple would miss a pre-xmas release unless there was a serious issue was the hardware or software. At the moment its must a rumour and AppleInsider suggests differently
 
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One of the ugliest Apple products ever second only to the battery hunchback atrocity.
the hunchback may be an aesthetic atrocity but it's incredibly functional.
i bought it on a whim and it's staying on my iphone full time.
never been able to discharge my phone fully in a day's use. you forget that you have a battery to worry about.
 
I also think that the 2 week delay we experience every September when new iPhones are announced is a deliberate marketing ploy. They announce the product, they make it sound 'magical', anticipation builds for two weeks, and then people rush to the stores on launch day.

Is there a marketing component to this? Possibly and probably, definitely doesn't hurt since it builds up desire. But if we estimate that on launch weekend Apple is moving 10-15 million iPhones across a variety of SKUs that they do not want leaked prior to their announcement (well, as much as possible), those phones are going to come with a bit of delivery lag time to ensure that only a fraction are stateside at the announcement day. The remainder are going factory-->airplane in China-->user. It's a logistical nightmare to expect such a large number of devices to be sales-ready without someone (i.e. store employee, carrier, etc) leaking the final product.

Now, a device that sells in far fewer quantity is a different story from a logistical perspective.
 
There is no way that Apple would miss a pre-xmas release unless there was a serious issue was the hardware or software. At the moment its must a rumour and AppleInsider suggests differently
DigiTime's rumour was based upon an earnings call.

The article that AppleInsider put out include quotes such as "we're ready to go" and "we've got a few pairs for customer demonstration that we're just waiting on the word to start with".
 
Why would the new mbp come with lightning port? There is no lightning to lightning cables... you are a living proof of how smart ppl there are on this forum, read more and more stupid and idiotic things here everyday

There is lightning to usb and lightning to usb-c cables

I never argued FOR a lightning port in MBs. I actually questioned it just as you are. It's the headphone-ejection-supporting crowd that suggested such stuff in passionate rationalizations. Now he we are. Dongle after dongles piling up in our bags and "the future" delayed into the future.
 
I grabbed a JayBird X2. 3 more hours of battery life over the AirPods, decent sound, and physical volume controls. Better deal. Same price, better specs.
And don't look like tampons hanging out of your ear
[doublepost=1478032404][/doublepost]I'm surprised as to many people that want these horribly designed earbuds. Jaybird freedoms are super small. Sound amazing and don't look like the standard earbuds cutoff. These look ridiculous. Worst apple designed product in my opinion.
 
You could understand if there were different teams working on the product designs but isn't the brilliant Jony head designer on all Apple hardware.
Come on Apple.
Strangely enough, it seems like it has gotten worse since then. It feels like he has this grand vision, but the realities of the situation keep interfering, and then timelines get all screwed up, but instead of doing what Jobs would do and say "Nah, we're going to wait until everything is ready and in place" they just release it anyway even though it's really confusing. There doesn't seem to be anyone at Apple like Jobs who is editing and putting his foot down on things because they can not only see the greater picture, but see how it will come together or needs to come together.
 
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A pathetic joke. Hype a product as the antidote to the "brave" decision to ditch the headphone jack, promise delivery by the "end of October", fail to deliver because "we need a little more time", possibly delay the release of said product until 4 months (!) after your flagship product it was meant for. I hope this rumor is false, but man does Apple know how to blow it. Sure, I want Apple to release products that work, but if it's not ready for prime time, don't even mention that it exists Apple! Who's the one who will be held accountable for this failure?
 
Not surprised. Yet another disappointment. I haven't bought a single Apple product this year as there hasn't been anything worth buying. Saved myself a fortune.
 
And don't look like tampons hanging out of your ear
[doublepost=1478032404][/doublepost]I'm surprised as to many people that want these horribly designed earbuds. Jaybird freedoms are super small. Sound amazing and don't look like the standard earbuds cutoff. These look ridiculous. Worst apple designed product in my opinion.
I think the Airpods look okay. They are basically EarPods without the wires. If you think the EarPods look fine, there isn't really any reason why one might have problems with the look of the Airpods.

I am most intrigued by the W1 chip, and the promise of being able to connect and switch pairings seamlessly between my Apple devices. That's really my number one bugbear with Bluetooth headphones.
 
The original info seems to be wrong and/or premature. Other insider sources say they'll ship this year. All the banter in this thread about the downfall of Apple and Cook's lack of leadership is nauseating. It seems that 75% of the comments on this board are almost identical. Unfortunately in the corporate world, CEOs are accountable to their shareholders. Measured by this, he's doing a respectable job.
 
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