New AirPods Expected Later This Year as Suppliers Begin Component Shipments
At least seven Apple suppliers have reportedly kicked off circuit board-related shipments for upcoming Apple products, and this notably includes third-generation AirPods, which are expected to be released later this year.
"Suppliers including Semco, LG Innotek, Kinsus, Unimicron, Nan Ya, Zhen Ding and AT&S have all kicked off their BT substrate shipments for Apple's next-generation products including the Apple Watch, AirPods and iPhone, which all adopt SiP modules," a paywalled DigiTimes report claimed today, citing industry sources.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Debby Wu previously reported that the third-generation AirPods will be released later in 2021 with a similar design as the AirPods Pro, including shorter stems. This would mark the first update to the standard AirPods since March 2019, when the second-generation pair launched with the H1 chip for hands-free "Hey Siri" functionality and up to 50 percent more talk time than the original AirPods.
The second-generation AirPods are priced at $159 with a wired charging case and at $199 with a wireless charging case, and the third-generation AirPods would maintain a lower price than the AirPods Pro, which cost $249 regularly but are frequently on sale. It's likely that the third-generation AirPods will lack some higher-end features like active noise cancellation to maintain this lower price point.
As for the AirPods Pro, a second-generation pair with fitness tracking are rumored to launch next year, and they may have a more compact design similar to Apple's new Beats Studio Buds released earlier this month.
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Sunday September 12, 2021 6:40 am PDT by
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While third-generation AirPods were not announced at the Apple Event this week, suppliers have already kicked off shipments of the long-awaited headphones, according to industry sources cited by Taiwanese website DigiTimes. In a paywalled preview of its report, DigiTimes said the shipments have been "slow," but production being underway is a good sign that the third-generation AirPods will...
Apple on Monday announced third-generation AirPods, featuring an updated design, improved sound quality, and an extra hour of battery life compared to the second-generation AirPods, which offer five hours of listening time. However, what Apple didn't make very explicit in its marketing is that to get six hours out of its latest earphones, spatial audio must be disabled.
As noted in Apple's fi...
The third-generation AirPods are still on track to be launched before the end of this year, despite their lack of appearance during the iPhone 13 and Apple Watch Series 7 event earlier last month, according to DigiTimes.
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Top Rated Comments
To put this in context, this is my first ever set of airpods. I have had the cheap SoundPeats ones before. The integration and ease of use is a big factor with Apple products and these are no exception. Movies on Disney+ sound great.
Sir Jony must be upset.