Apple Has 'No' Plans Yet for AirPods Max 2 With 'Meaningful' Changes

[MacRumors]

While this should come as no surprise given that Apple just updated the AirPods Max in September, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Apple currently has "no concrete plans" to update the headphones again "in a meaningful way."

"I expect the company to keep the Max headphones around for the foreseeable future in their current form," he added.

AirPods Max received only two changes in September, including a USB-C charging port instead of Lightning, and new color options. The headphones did not receive Apple's H2 chip that debuted in the AirPods Pro 2 a few years ago, so they continue to miss out on Adaptive Audio features, and there were no improvements to active noise cancellation either.

This means the AirPods Max continue to have the H1 chip that Apple introduced in 2019, yet the $549 headphones did not receive a price cut.

Gurman believes that AirPods Max sales are too low for Apple to justify allocating more development resources to the headphones. So, if you are hoping for AirPods Max 2 with more significant improvements, keep your expectations low for now.

Article Link: Apple Has 'No' Plans Yet for AirPods Max 2 With 'Meaningful' Changes

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

No plans to drop the price either.

 

[abatabia]

Might as well discontinue them. Apple baffles me sometimes with their decisions.

 

[spartan1967]

I recommend you start making plans Apple because considering my AP2 going towards an antiquated status, these are the only ones I would consider investing in next. No other Apple in ear models work for me.

 

[Return Zero]

I have an idea. Make them out of titanium instead of steel and charge $799! Everyone wins, right? Apple gets more money, and consumers get a lighter pair of headphones. Click like and subscribe for more profit maximization strategies.

 

[S.B.G]

Without any significant updates it is a hard ask at that price point. There are so many great headphone options out there at all prices ranges.

In this particular class, wireless, Bluetooth and ANC, the Bose QC45's at half the price are a great alternative.

 

[lanomds1]

At this point the APP2 are a way better option. The sound quality is not that different from APM and you get a whole bunch of features for half of the price. My APM headband stretched and now it’s almost unusable for more than 1 hour ans apple won’t even replace just the headband. I regret paying the premium price for a bad product like this. Not to mention that case…

Oh, and I love the concept of a trillion dollar company not releasing better products for the purpose of cutting down on costs. It’s just ridiculous.

 

[m.x]

No plans to drop the price either.

That decision is pure Tim Cook bean counter style. Just slap an H2 chip into it and try to waterproof the insides a bit better against the condensation issues, but even that is too expensive so they just let the product rot. It's insane. Music was at the heart of Apple for so long and now they can't even be bothered to update their 4 year old most expensive headphones. If it wasn't for the USB-C in the EU I think we wouldn't have seen a "new" ( ) model this year.

 

[Rradcircless]

What I don’t understand is why; Apple doesn’t shy away from discrete incremental upgrades to products, so why won’t they toss an H2 chip in the Max and give them some feature parity with the Pro 2s?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Might as well discontinue them. Apple baffles me sometimes with their decisions.

What baffle? Whenever we consumers are baffled, ask ourselves a simple question: "But who makes the most profitable..." Or just think about the money.

Modern Apple is relentlessly focused on "another record quarter..." above all else. They have all the money necessary to put teams on everything to keep everything as up to date as desired. But it's much more profitable to sell relatively ancient tech at the "same great price."

Modern Apple could also hire and assign whole teams to debug it all and get us back to a "just works" Apple too. But that's a cost-adding concept vs. a profit-maximizing one. So bugs linger- sometimes for many years- like the one that drives me batty...

...which has persisted through now FIVE generations of macOS. Enclosure through same cable linked to any PC or any Mac with macOS BEFORE "Big Sur" is just fine. Hook it to "latest & greatest" in the last approx. 5 years and mine can't stay connected for more than about 3 hours. Others report different amounts of time and it is a widespread problem- not just for me or "a small percentage of users."

If Apple buyers would stop "just buying" these headphones, it would "force" Apple to either update them or discontinue them. But buyers just keep paying and thus rewarding Apple for such choices in the most tangible way. While "we" do that, Apple is doing exactly what they should... even if it makes little sense through our consumer lenses. It makes lots of $en$e to AAPL shareholders. 💰💰💰

 

[Apple_Robert]

I wonder if this (alleged) decision is due to possibly low sales since introduction.

 

[DHagan4755]

Disappointing. I refuse to spend so much money on headphones like this & that also come with a bra to store them.

 

[widget999]

Apple needs to change the headband. After one year mine was completely stretched and uncomfortable. A very common issue online. I fixed it with a cheap silicone pad, but that looks pretty ugly and is less comfortable than they used to be in the beginning.

 

[UMHurricanes34]

The vicious cycle of Tim Apple’s product strategy.

Overpriced and under-featured. Doesn’t sell well enough (shocking!) to justify fixing the product’s shortcomings, which would then (theoretically) increase sales.

They’re basically a home runs only company now and refuse to just get runners on base and keep chopping away until they score like the old days. Apologies for the baseball metaphor.

This is why there is so much brain drain at the company in design and engineering. No buy in at the highest levels to stay committed to improving their products in meaningful ways that, GASP, require the richest company in the world to make financial investments in…wait for it…improving their products.

 

[Student of Life]

I recommend you start making plans Apple because considering my AP2 going towards an antiquated status, these are the only ones I would consider investing in next. No other Apple in ear models work for me.

You should look at the Beats Pro headphones, they are like APM lite, they have more features, lossless via the usb-c port, etc and you can find them on sale for like 150-180 depending on the sale.

 

[XboxEvolved]

I would consider this a big win for current Max owners. That huge price tag gets to be justified for quite a bit more time.

 

[fwmireault]

Gurman believes that AirPods Max sales are too low for Apple to justify allocating more development resources to the headphones

More development resource like spec bumping the APM to the latest already existing chip? Terribly resource intensive i suppose

Oh and at least release a USB-C cable for wired listening

 

[UltimateSyn]

The sales are low because they cost $549 and are increasingly noncompetitive in an extremely saturated high-end headphone market. They should update them to have feature parity with their other headphones.... ie. bare minimum.

 

[Sirious]

I love love love my AirPods to bits. I would get the AirPods Max without a thought if they just decreased the price or made it worth it! Currently Beats are looking like a better option.

 

[Student of Life]

Instead of doing the typical bashing of Tim, I think the real answer here is the technology is just not at the state where it would meet Apple standard.

All year I have read of the qualcomm chip that will give headphones lossless, the year is almost over and silence. Even the new H100 from Bang and Olufsen costing almost an obscene amount can’t do lossless.

Lossless will be one of the main features as well as better noise cancellation and battery life for the next version. Thats something that will get APM users to upgrade, not just throwing in the H2 chip.

Remember Apple Vision and the APP2 can do lossless but look at the proximity between both devices, a fingers length at most unobstructed, just to reach one’s pant pockets, you are looking at 10 times the distance and that’s not counting the signal having to go through your pants and whatever material they are made of, denim etc. that’s not touching battery life etc, the technology is just not ready unfortunately.

 

[coolerkid]

That's lame. These headphones have great sound quality and ANC, but the design is comically flawed, and they are very overpriced. If they released a redesign that addressed a lot of the issues, especially the weight, and lowered the price, I'm sure they would sell a ton of these.

 

[jommo]

Was holding out hope but B&W Px8 it is then I guess.

 

[Nozgog]

Price could be lower, sure. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter to those who can’t stand in-ear and want something from Apple.

I bought my APM when they first came out for full price and gotten lots of use out of them. I was ready to upgrade this September again for full price to get H2 chip, adaptive audio etc.

Now I’m hoping for an even bigger upgrade with titanium to make them lighter, maybe even H3 chip, Bluetooth 6 etc.

 

[anthogag]

Apple could make a new AirPods Max in Indonesia.

My AirPods Max sound better with my 16 Pro Max.

Perhaps we are overlooking the obvious. Apple may be too chicken to upgrade the Max.

 

[jommo]

All year I have read of the qualcomm chip that will give headphones lossless, the year is almost over and silence. Even the new H100 from Bang and Olufsen costing almost an obscene amount can’t do lossless.

Slight aside but it's wild that they released the £1300 H100s with LDAC "coming in 2025" when aptX Adaptive (can handle maximum 24bit/96KHz) is already proven to work fine on the H95s.