Lower-Cost AirPods and New AirPods Max Said to Launch Later This Year

[Royksöpp]

Perhaps we'll finally get a decent case for the AirPods Max. I don't mind the Smart Case for use around the house, but I would prefer to have a first party travel case.

 

[tridley68]

Will Apple ever give us BACK our 3.5mm headphone jacks?

I really dislike these earbuds. They fall out, often they fail within days of purchasing them, the sound quality is all over the place, etc.

Apple can never price any Apple ear bud low enough for me to purchase these poor performing and poor bass ear buds.

 

[Surf Monkey]

They need to put better drivers in ALL AirPods.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Apple can never price any Apple ear bud low enough for me to purchase these poor performing and poor bass ear buds.

Agree. There is no AirPod that has a decent frequency sweep. You can get vastly superior old style wired buds for less than $25. In the AirPods and AirPods Pro price range you can find excellent sounding wired and wireless buds and IEMs that blow AirPods out of the water. And as far as AirPods Max go? They’re not even in the conversation when it comes to quality sound reproduction. If you’re going to invest in full sized cans there are countless better options.

 

[Arctic Moose]

Will Apple ever give us BACK our 3.5mm headphone jacks?

No.

I really dislike these earbuds.

There are so many Lightning, USB-C and Bluetooth options, surely you can find a pair you like?

If you really need to use a specific pair that only has analog input you can always use an adapter.

They fall out, often they fail within days of purchasing them, the sound quality is all over the place, etc.

I have four pairs of AirPods, have never had any of them fail. 🤷‍♂️

 

[svish]

A new model at $99 will be nice to have in the lineup.

 

[redcarlsen]

Steve brought the iMac, which took 1 product with say, 3 configurations, and gave it at least 3-5 different colors at any given point in time. So you'd have 15 SKUs where there'd otherwise be 3. And they did it with the iBook too.


Right now they have 2nd gen airpods, 3rd gen airpods, 2nd gen airpods pro, and then for airpods max there's black, blue, green, red, and silver. If Apple wanted to cull their headphone SKUs they could just kill the Max.

But then there's the dozens upon dozens of Beats headphone SKUs since each of those come in a lot of colors.

I don't think they really care about this anymore. The supply chain is different today than it was 26 years ago.

I don’t think any reasonable person is counting different colors as different products.
While they are different “skus,” the point is too many different products.

 

[iZac]

I have no doubt that these will exactly be 2nd generation AirPods with a USB C port so they can eliminate lightning from the entire lineup before the EU mandate.

AirPods SE or something.

 

[klasma]

Anybody else still holding onto their Airpods 2 because they prefer the tap controls over the squeeze controls?

Yes, and I will hold on to them if newer models don’t revert to them. Where I live there is a company offering battery replacements for Airpods.

 

[klasma]

I have no doubt that these will exactly be 2nd generation AirPods with a USB C port so they can eliminate lightning from the entire lineup before the EU mandate.

The EU mandate does not apply to existing models on the market, hence there would be no need for Apple to do that.

 

[MasterControlProgram]

I really wish Apple didn’t treat people who can’t use in-ear headphones as some sort of underclass fit only for the cheapest model. I know they can’t put noise cancelling onto non-in-ear headphones but there’s no reason why they couldn’t do a version with all the other premium features (like smart volume, speaker on the case, etc).

 

[iZac]

The EU mandate does not apply to existing models on the market, hence there would be no need for Apple to do that.

Haha, then we get into semantics of what defines "new"

Manufacturing date?
SKU adjustments?
Resubmission for the CE mark?

Apologies, I'm not trying to be abrasive or anything, I'm just genuinely unclear. Like could the iPhone 13 be sold indefinitely if they just upgraded the CPU and didn't advertise it? Then what about if they make tiny manufacturing efficiencies and have a slightly different part number for the motherboard? or fixed a troublesome ribbon cable? What about that software fix for the iPhone 12 in France that changed the antenna performance?

Ah, I'm just looking forward to a USB-C Utopia

 

[uczcret]

I have such a love/hate relationship with my AirPods Max. I refuse to charge my AirPods Max in the stupid bra (which I have also misplaced and I categorically refuse to buy a replacement from Apple…it is somewhere) so the battery life (which was never good at launch and is even worse years later, and this pair was replaced under warranty in December 2022 right before the AppleCare+ expired) is not great and I get to have the fun of manually re-pairing them every few days. I also don’t love the comfort and the noise cancellation isn’t as good as my Sony's. The sound quality is quite good, especially for spatial audio, but I have better headphones for serious listening. All things considered, these are absolutely the worst $550 headphones I own, and I own a lot of headphones in this price range.

That said, I’m counting down the days for the next generation, because even if the only change is a USB-C port, these are an instant-buy. The auto-pairing is just too good across devices and as much as it pains me, if my current pair died tomorrow, I’d be ordering a replacement immediately.

I do hope that whatever Sonos comes out with and whatever Sony's successor headphones are will encourage Apple to do a little more than just adding a USB-C port, but I doubt it. In any event, I look at my pink AirPods Max with disdain and look forward to replacing them with a pair I hate almost as much.

This post spoke to my soul.

I have the exact same masochistic relationship with my APM. They’ve been replaced/repaired five times by Apple due to condensation since 2021, I’ve lost the ridiculous bra case once and paid £65 for a replacement, the battery life is average at best, wearing them for more than a couple of hours at a time gives me a headache, yet I’d buy a pair the next day if I were to somehow find myself without my current one.

 

[uczcret]

Haha, then we get into semantics of what defines "new"

Manufacturing date?
SKU adjustments?
Resubmission for the CE mark?

Apologies, I'm not trying to be abrasive or anything, I'm just genuinely unclear. Like could the iPhone 13 be sold indefinitely if they just upgraded the CPU and didn't advertise it? Then what about if they make tiny manufacturing efficiencies and have a slightly different part number for the motherboard? or fixed a troublesome ribbon cable? What about that software fix for the iPhone 12 in France that changed the antenna performance?

Ah, I'm just looking forward to a USB-C Utopia

These are all very valid questions/scenarios, but arguing for the lightning connector in 2024 is not the hill to die on.

 

[Successful Sorcerer]

It's very hard for me to believe they won't update the Max to be on par with the Airpods Pro 2.... like the H2 chip for better noise cancellation, adaptive transparency, better spatial audio, better efficiency and better sound. What the heck, maybe even an H3 with better efficiency and ANC while they're at it!

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

So 8 iPhones, six different iPads, six different Airpods.

 

[darngooddesign]

Maybe they will ditch the H chip so my AirPods don't interrupt my iPad which is streaming to a BT speaker just because I walked by it.

 

[ignatius345]

Pu also expects updated AirPods Max to be released in the fourth quarter of 2024. Gurman previously said a USB-C charging port will be the only new feature for the over-ear headphones, and new color options are also a possibility.

That would be very weak.

 

[Andain]

They’ve been releasing the Max 2 for 2 years now…

Guys stop wasting your life waiting and get your pair and enjoy it.

I’ve had mine for almost 1 year now.

 

[ignatius345]

They fall out, often they fail within days of purchasing them, the sound quality is all over the place, etc.

I know people whose ears they won't stay in, that's fair, and maybe you're one of them. But the rest of this is just stuff you made up. Pretty sure they don't "often" fail within days of purchse. And I can guarantee you the sound quality is not "all over the place."

 

[darngooddesign]

Too many SKU's for this and all Apple product these days! Remember when Steve came back and culled product lines,..its time! I've never seen so many product and product variations like we have now.

For goodness sakes Apple, Steve would be angry. Just have 1 low end, 1 high end,..remove ALL old product. It's crazy that Apple keeps this and all other product waste collecting dust on its store shelves. Cut the SKU's!

It's time for Jeff Williams to take the reigns, after Tim Cook wasted 10 Billion dollars on a non-existent prototype.

Someone doesn't remember all the iMac colors, all the iBook colors, all the different iPod models, all the iPod Mini colors, all the iPod Nano colors which were advertised as nanochromatic, all the iPod Shuffle colors, two sizes of iBooks, two colors of plastic MacBooks, three sizes of PowerBooks, older iPhones sold next to newer ones, etc. Yep, nothing but simplicity under Steve Jobs.

Also, the real value that the Apple car gave was a portfolio of patents and patented AI technologies.

 

[aknabi]

I hate that stupid bra less than I thought I would, but I also don't understand why they insisted on it. I bought them because I loved how convenient using my gen 2 airpods is. But I really like over-ear cans and needed something with noise cancellation. But I can't just have it sitting on my desk, it has to be in that case. lol.

That said, the case. I don't really care about headphone cases because the headphones live on my desk. Quite the opposite: I don't want to have to use a case. I get that having a power button isn't very Apple, but this seems to have been the perfect situation to have a power button. Or at least make them go to sleep when you turn the earcaps sideways! although I don't care much for that one...

Or if they wanted to sell overpriced crap, they could've made them detect when they were placed laying down on their side and/or when someone sets them on a special "Made for Airpods Max" stand. (oo plus points if the stand charged the airpods wirelessly!)

While we're at it: They can't be serious about "being eco friendly" with that headband. The design doesn't allow you to easily swap the mesh out. Why?! Who thought this was a good idea?!

I think you propose many good design solutions to improve usability... I always find it amusing that many think Apple's design decisions are the end all of what is the right answer... although they tend to be very good (with ID being more above average than digital UX) they do plenty of bone headed moves...

Over the past several years I've seen more slip through the cracks... my way biased opinion is because many of my design friends have left

 

[cocky jeremy]

Will Apple ever give us BACK our 3.5mm headphone jacks?

Not happening. Give up that dream.

 

[MNWildFan]

What is old is new again:

View attachment 2364644

$99 for something that used to be included with the phones/iPods for free???

Yeah, that's a no from me, dawg

 

[MNWildFan]

It's very hard for me to believe they won't update the Max to be on par with the Airpods Pro 2.... like the H2 chip for better noise cancellation, adaptive transparency, better spatial audio, better efficiency and better sound. What the heck, maybe even an H3 with better efficiency and ANC while they're at it!

I agree

They have been out for 4 YEARS now, and yet the rumors are saying that the only update they're getting is the change of port from lightning to USB-C? I find that so hard to believe... No excuses as to how something can go this long without being updated and not inherit the features the AirPods Pro 2nd gen have like spacial audio, adaptive transparancy, etc