Kuo: AirPods Max 2 Not Coming Until Second Half of 2024 at the Earliest

[MacRumors]

Apple will not launch a second-generation AirPods Max until at least the second half of next year, and could possibly wait until the first half of 2025 to refresh the headphones, according to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In his latest series of tweets outlining industry expectations, Kuo said he believes Apple's "next important acoustic product refresh time" will be between the second half of 2024 and the first half of 2025. Kuo lists three products due for a refresh in this window of time, including a second-generation HomePod mini, AirPods Max 2, and a "low-cost version" of Apple's AirPods.

As for what we can expect in AriPods Max 2, Kuo did not offer any additional details about Apple's premium over-ear noise canceling headphones, although features that would make sense for the next-generation pair include a USB-C port instead of Lightning, improved noise cancelation, longer battery life, new color options, a U1 chip for Precision Finding in the Find My app, and more. AirPods Max were first released in December 2020 for $549.

In a previous prediction, Kuo said that Apple is aiming for a $99 price for the more affordable standard AirPods. Currently, the $129 second-generation AirPods are the cheapest option from Apple, while the third-generation AirPods are priced at $169 with a Lightning charging case and at $179 with a MagSafe case. Analyst Jeff Pu has also predicted the arrival of lower-priced AirPods next year.

Article Link: Kuo: AirPods Max 2 Not Coming Until Second Half of 2024 at the Earliest

 

[MayaUser]

AirPods Max 3 Not Coming Until Second Half of 2026 at the Earliest​

thats my prediction
And i bet Airpods Max 10 is not coming this decade

 

[ColdShadow]

I may be interested if they change that ugly bulky and heavy design ..
I’m kind of a headphones addict..in the past 5 years or so,I bought and compared around 10 pairs of wireless headphones (all highly rated models) and finally settled on Sennheiser Momentum 3.
Their sound quality is simply the best out of all.

 

[iRun26.2]

At least they are still are talking about refreshing them. My first pair is the my favorite Apple product ever!

 

[boss.king]

Who’s excited to overpay for headphones again?

 

[Skyscraperfan]

It is very much about personal taste. Sennheizer headphone intentionally have a bigger emphasis on higher frequencies and they have a lower bass than headphones that are solely targeted towards consumers. Sennheizer headphones are closer to professional studio headphones that allow you to hear all instruments of a concert clearly. Many people hate the low base. Those people usually also put the base slider to the max. Sennheizer headphones certainly have a higher sound quality than AirPods, but you have to get used to the lower base. Sennheizer could of course build headphones with stronger base if they wanted.

I do not know why Apple still sells Beats headphones, which have quite a low sound quality. Isn't Apple usually aiming for the best?

 

[Mat.Rynio]

AirPods Max don't need refresh imo but its charging case? Hell yes.

 

[Mikeske]

Yeah but the biggest issue I have with any headphones and those hideous things you stick in your ears. None of them have separate controls for volume between the left and right side. I gave up years ago when my old off brand headphones died from the 1980's which had separate volume controls for each ear.

I have a 80% hearing loss in the left ear and cannot use air pods or the headphones as it confuses me when the stereo separation happens to music. I know I missed something. I just want separate controls of the volume to listen to music. Everybody talks the accessibility but then I bought this up for the past 10 years and you can guess it is like talking me on the left side with out my hearing aid.

 

[boss.king]

I do not know why Apple still sells Beats headphones, which have quite a low sound quality. Isn't Apple usually aiming for the best?

It's not like the standard AirPods are a shining example of sound quality. Apple just covers a wide spectrum of pricing so that they can make more money. They still sell iPads with the first-gen Pencil, they sold the Series 3 watch until last year, and they've been selling the Magic Mouse for god knows how long — they're perfectly happy to sell lesser products if they think they can make a lot of money from them.

 

[McNoise]

Hopefully, the new version will be 200 grams lighter (to name just one major shortcoming). I quickly sold mine again - you have to make far too many compromises for the price. The AirPods Max 1 are a "function follows form" fail.

 

[Alex Cai]

I do not know why Apple still sells Beats headphones, which have quite a low sound quality. Isn't Apple usually aiming for the best?

Real professionals with high sound quality requirements should go wired.

 

[AppleUser2]

Lead times in most stores (including Apples’s) are v long so I think a refresh will be much sooner.

 

[foobarbaz]

Do you really think they'll keep selling expensive Lightning headphones if the iPhone Pro switches to USB-C this year? That'd be pretty awkward.

 

[tgt]

Yeah but the biggest issue I have with any headphones and those hideous things you stick in your ears. None of them have separate controls for volume between the left and right side. I gave up years ago when my old off brand headphones died from the 1980's which had separate volume controls for each ear.

I have a 80% hearing loss in the left ear and cannot use air pods or the headphones as it confuses me when the stereo separation happens to music. I know I missed something. I just want separate controls of the volume to listen to music. Everybody talks the accessibility but then I bought this up for the past 10 years and you can guess it is like talking me on the left side with out my hearing aid.

I'm not sure whether any will help, but Settings -> Accessibility -> Audio/Visual has Headphone Accommodations (for supported headphones), Mono Audio and Balance.

 

[Porco]

Yeah but the biggest issue I have with any headphones and those hideous things you stick in your ears. None of them have separate controls for volume between the left and right side. I gave up years ago when my old off brand headphones died from the 1980's which had separate volume controls for each ear.

I have a 80% hearing loss in the left ear and cannot use air pods or the headphones as it confuses me when the stereo separation happens to music. I know I missed something. I just want separate controls of the volume to listen to music. Everybody talks the accessibility but then I bought this up for the past 10 years and you can guess it is like talking me on the left side with out my hearing aid.

Does the balance slider in the accessibility section not help? Panning the audio balance should let you effectively lower the volume on one side to a desired amount. Sorry if this doesn’t do what you want. (Edit: @tgt beat me to it!)

 

[orbital~debris]

So new colourways are likely imminent as an interim 'refresh' of the lineup.

 

[sam_dean]

Products that need a refresh are the

- Dec 2019 Mac Pro
- Aug 2020 iMac 27"
- Oct 2020 HomePod Mini
- Dec 2020 AirPods Max
- Sep 2021 iPad Mini
- Oct 2021 AirPods
- Mar 2022 iPhone SE
- Apr 2022 iMac 24"

All I want is a iMac 27" replacement with

- M2 Pro
- 32GB RAM
- 1TB SSD 7.5GB/s
- 27", 30" or 32" 6K display
- Under $2599
- 1 GbE port
- four USB 4 40Gbps ports
- one HDMI 2.1 port
- two USB 3.1 10Gbps ports

 

[UncleMac]

It is very much about personal taste. Sennheizer headphone intentionally have a bigger emphasis on higher frequencies and they have a lower bass than headphones that are solely targeted towards consumers. Sennheizer headphones are closer to professional studio headphones that allow you to hear all instruments of a concert clearly. Many people hate the low base. Those people usually also put the base slider to the max. Sennheizer headphones certainly have a higher sound quality than AirPods, but you have to get used to the lower base. Sennheizer could of course build headphones with stronger base if they wanted.

I do not know why Apple still sells Beats headphones, which have quite a low sound quality. Isn't Apple usually aiming for the best?

I cloud not disagree more. First we have to distinguish between Sennheiser studio series (HD-series) and their consumer stuff (Momentum).

HD-series are great studio cans (I use HD-800s in my studio). The are fairly accurate and great for what they are supposed to do but they are close to useless for normal consumption of music (wired, no noise reduction, lots of sound leakage, big)

The Momentum series (their consumer series) can't be compared to the HD-series. I've owned Momentum Wireless 2 & 3 and Momentum TW 2 & 3. Their TW are good sounding for a true wireless earbud but pretty bass heavy and not what I would call accurate (if that is what you are looking for). I would have kept mine if it wasn't for the big case.

The Wireless 2 i liked. They were good at the time but I sold them and got the Wireless 3's. I really hated the 3's - to me they were mid scooped, cold and analytical sounding. I tend to like warmer sounding cans when compared to my stereo setup at home. I don't own AirPods Max (because I just can't see the use case for me) but to my ears they are superior sounding to the MW3 (I have not tried the MW4) and the best sounding wireless headphones I have tried to date.

 

[wdfly]

need to reduce the price by about 70% before I buy again. Only reason I have a pair is I won several gift cards to an Apple Store in Vegas and there wasn’t anything else that interested me at the time.

 

[Reason077]

AirPods Max 2 Not Coming Until Second Half of 2024 at the Earliest​

This is very sad and depressing news for me 😥

All Apple need to change on the AirPods Max is to switch the port to USB-C, and design an improved travel case. That's it. Why is everything taking so long? What's going on at Apple Engineering these days?

I really want the AirPod Max but won't be buying the current version with it's annoying and soon-to-be-obsolete Lightning port.

 

[Reason077]

need to reduce the price by about 70%

Keep dreaming.

 

[racerhomie]

Who’s excited to overpay for headphones again?

Stick with your 50 cents pair of headphones from China

 

[sam_dean]

Stick with your 50 cents pair of headphones from China

It's actually $5 and it's pretty groovy.

I never have to charge it and audio quality isn't lossy because of the limits of Bluetooth

 

[sos47]

i think they get an update this year because of the lightning to usbc conversion.
no one in Europe wants to buy an „old“ Airpod Max with lighting at the end of 2023.

 

[icanhazapple]

USB C and U1 and I'd buy a pair.