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Apple Has 'No' Plans Yet for AirPods Max 2 With 'Meaningful' Changes
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Maybe, maybe not. For all we know Steve could have guessed wrong and the iPhone market could have died and him booted from the company like he was back in the early apple days. Speculating what someone would do a decade after they have died, in a market that is widely different than it was then, is just a waste of everyone’s time.
Again, a decade. It’s time to move on. It was time eight years ago.
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My guess is that a year or so after H3 debuts in next AirPods Pro’s, we will get 2nd gen AirPods Max with some updates that are big improvements over first gen. Until then, I wouldn’t expect anything at all.
They’re clearly not doing well enough to warrant development of any meaningful updates after four years on the market, I’d say that’s objectively poor performance. They’re competing with Bose QuietComfort Ultra, Sony XM5, Sonos Ace, Sennheiser, Bowers & Wilkin, etc.
My biggest problem is that they didn’t even update it with the features that have already been implemented in their own other wireless headphone products. They’re charging $549 for headphones that are missing several features from their sub-$300 earbud offerings. It’s really sloppy.
Price cut would be nice. It’s silly to be expected to pay the same price in 2024 for tech from 2020.
What is SO frustrating about this is that Apple takes the wrong lesson from the lower sales. That shouldn’t mean stop improving on the headphones, it should mean go back and figure out why this isn’t a hit, and make the necessary changes to make it one.
I tried these on in a store just days ago, and I was immediately struck by the weight. That alone would make these a no-go for me. Redesign, fix the stupid case, and maybe drop the price 50-100 bucks and then see what happens.
It’s one thing if you iterate a few times and the product STILL doesn’t take off. But you don’t just abandon it. If that’s going to be your philosophy, you might as well give up on AR/VR too while you’re at it. 🙄
I tried these on in a store just days ago, and I was immediately struck by the weight. That alone would make these a no-go for me. Redesign, fix the stupid case, and maybe drop the price 50-100 bucks and then see what happens.
It’s one thing if you iterate a few times and the product STILL doesn’t take off. But you don’t just abandon it. If that’s going to be your philosophy, you might as well give up on AR/VR too while you’re at it. 🙄
Well-said. There’s a lot of low hanging fruit for improvement on these (weight being a very key one), and they could be incredible with another revision.
so it is clearly selling well enough to justify updating and keeping. i think they solve a purpose and certainly in social crowds.
I got the USB-C Max this year because I had gift cards, and I love them, but I figure sales are low because of the price. There are so many good options out there that go for far less.
Just buy yourself Bose QC45. Their stock EQ is crap, but you can fix it within 10 minutes in the app. On the plus side, they are much more comfortable for longer listening sessions and are half the price of Max.
Airpods Max, the magic mouse of headphones
I hope this guy Tim Cook retires soon. As a non-stock owner and someone who just wants the best products.
In general, all high end products (Mac Pro/Studio, Pro Display XDR/Studio Display…) don’t receive frequent updates. Of course, expensive products don’t sell in high volumes, but that doesn’t mean the APM might not be doing well in relative terms.
It could be doing very well in the high-end headphone market, but that kind of market is anyway small enough that it’s not worth a big and frequent investment.
I’d say there are more positive than negative signs. Despite a very high price tag, I can see AirPods Max quite frequently - much more than I could guess when it launched. Apple still promotes it quite a lot, they launched new colors…
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. 💰💰,
I just pulled the trigger on B&W Px8. In black they are down to $470 on an Amazon Black Friday deal.
I never liked APM v.1 - too heavy, too ugly, nothing but a "bra" included in the box. APM v.1.1 are a joke of an update.
I tried to get by with the new Beats Studio Pro. Even when they were $170 or so on Amazon this Summer I still feel ripped off. Half-assed Apple integration, cheap construction, and a disappointingly flat (dull, muddy, lifeless) sound.
The walled garden ain't what it used to be.
While not wireless, or ANC, my go-to headphones are the Sennheiser HD650's and I'm listening to them right now.
I have a small array of other headphones, including the aforementioned Bose QC45's, plus the Harmonicdyne Zeus, and just in today (!) the new Harmonicdyne Eris. Also had a few Beyerdynamic headphones in the past.
When I look at the APM, and read other's reviews of them, I don't really see where they'd fit in my life. The Bose QC45's are in my opinion, a competitor to the APM feature to feature, and they beat the APM by half the price and don't have all the other issues like headband problems and goofy case.
If Apple wanted to be serious about a headphone, then they have a lot of homework to do and then go back to the drawing board. There are so many better options on the market, some less expensive, others more expensive than the APM. But there are choices for everyone's budget.
I have the B&O H100. They are expensive but sound fantastic. So much so that ‘lossless’ is becoming less relevant as everything sounds excellent. I had the APM at launch and they went back. Heavy and uncomfortable. Condensation after minutes of use. I’m sure Apple have the ability to match the sound quality (and price) of the H100
I agree, and when they do release, they can keep the current Max, like they did for AirPods 2 and 3, and drop the price. Updating Max w/ just USBC and color, means they won't compete feature wise with APM 2, but at least have USBC like all other Apple products except the soon to be discontinued iPhone SE 3.
My opinion on that would be that Apple doesn't give much credence to standards, either in this context, or generally speaking. They have a tendency to do their own thing. Sometimes quite successfully, other times, not so much.
While lossless audio via wireless is not quite there yet, though very close, Apple's history of doing their own thing is at work for the APM. For a long time, and even still I think, they push AAC, a lossy format on their users in certain conditions.
Additionally, they couldn't use FLAC like everyone else and had to write their own wrapper, ALAC, which is literally the same thing as FLAC, only Appleified. So if you wanted to listen to iTunes or Apple Music on certain types of equipment, you had to make sure it was ALAC compatible. Though it's a lot better today than it was a number of years ago.
I just don't understand Apple's choices at times.
even a niche market can be saturated. niche markets are probably saturated even faster.
It's fairly obvious. Their strategy is to create barriers to using non-Apple products and services. If there's an opportunity to create points of friction, that is what they will do. They want users to be in their ecosystem so they can have complete vertical integration, anything that allows otherwise is the antithesis to this endgame.
In fact, having shed much of Apple's products and services (though not all) in recent years, I have realized that other companies genuinely do things better, but only in their respective niche. If a user is willing to give up some of Apple's integration (which, let's be honest, is hit or miss these days) they can have a much better experience elsewhere.
Sure,
Make an uncomfortable expesive product and don’t improve it because it doesn’t sell. Is this what will happen to vision pro?
Make an uncomfortable expesive product and don’t improve it because it doesn’t sell. Is this what will happen to vision pro?