Report: AirPods Pro 3 Needed to Turn Around Sales Flatline

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

All the cool kids are back to using the humble Earpods

Gen Z have realised that Apple are a ruthless blood sucking mega corp who are destroying their lives thusly they are using wired buds with their iphone/iPad/Macbook

 

[Abazigal]

A victim of their own success perhaps, after my iPhone the EarPods have been the most useful item. They’re very reliable and simple to use, and great sound. No need to upgrade.

Only with Apple products is Apple both at fault for their products lasting too long, and not lasting long enough. It's Apple's fault regardless of whether apple users upgrade too often, or not at all.

 

[artifex]

Depends on how much you think you'd use the features you think the model that hasn't come out yet will have.
The current model didn't lose any of the functionality that made you ready to buy it, so if you can still get a good deal you might be better off with that. Especially if your plan is to only use them a couple years. By then the kinks for whatever new health stuff is coming should be worked out before the newest model when you're ready to replace them.

I just got some cheap noise cancelling TWS buds during a sale last week, but if I start to lose my hearing I'll be thinking about the hearing aid functionality in the Airpods Pro 2 and later, because they'll become a relative bargain. Hopefully they iterate on even more processing and perhaps more frequency bands in the meantime. Wouldn't hurt for them to also add an Android app for the hearing aid stuff at least.

Okay, so, based on later anecdotes in this thread, I should be worried about the battery life, apparently?

I have some Skullcandy buds I bought early in the pandemic (either my first or second time using the curbside pickup at Best Buy) for $25 that I later 'forgot' in a spares closet and only found a few months ago (I switched to IEMs a couple years ago so I wasn't missing them), that still showed as charged in their box. Obviously, didn't have the number of charge cycles most of you had, but if this cheap gear has better batteries than Airpods that suggests the latter kinda suck. The cheap noise cancelling ones I mentioned just recently buying on sale were the Anker p30i, for ~$22. (I didn't mention the brand before because I didn't want you thinking I was shilling.) No idea about the battery life yet, and Anker certainly has expertise with small batteries and charging, but still: at the prices I paid I won't cry if the Ankers die in a couple years, assuming I don't lose or damage them before then. I'd expect a lot more from Apple. But I'd also be looking around for third party experiences trying to replace the battery in the charging case. Would be fun for someone at MacRumors to write an article attempting that, actually. Small chance it might even move Apple to make some changes.

 

[StrollerEd]

Just for the record, I have had the AirPods Pro [1st] since 2020 and have used them reasonably often - but by no means always on. Battery of pods and case all good. Expensive at £209, but consider them value for money.