Apple Delays AirPods Beyond Original 'Late October' Window (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple's new wireless, $180 AirPods have less than a week to meet their original shipping target of "late October," and now the company has confirmed that such a launch is officially off the table. A Wednesday statement, given to Ars Technica just one day ahead of the company's latest Mac-related press event, confirmed Apple's decision to delay the wireless headphones' launch. In the statement, Apple tells Ars that the company "needs a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers." "The early response to AirPods has been incredible," the Apple statement reads. "We don't believe in shipping a product before it's ready." Apple declined to offer any estimate or release window information about when to expect the AirPods' official launch.

Comments

Courage

[Jason1729]

Timmy needs to find the courage to get his supply chain under control.

Re:Courage

[ASDFnz]

Yeah, he should just shove things through whether they are ready or not, Samsung did do just that and they haven't had a problem yet right?

I am not really trying to defend Apple, I am just pointing out that unless something is ready the end user experience can be flammable at times.

Re:Courage

[Spazmania]

What battery tech is in these devices you stick in your ear? Did they choose Lithium Ion?

Re: Courage

[Anonymous Coward]

I know first hand. The battery tech isn't completed. Right now, the prototype EarPods only last 15 minutes. The right EarPod with the controller and button lasts only 10 minutes. These also heat up quite a bit during discharge specifically with phone calls.

We were hoping the new battery tech would be ready lipo2 but the fast charge capabilities of the battery greatly reduce the endurance.

We are now trying a much slower charging lithium ion tech but requires a change in the weight and form factor.

Re:Courage

[stealth_finger]

No problem. Just fall back on your wir.....Oh yeah.

An idea for Apple

[Bueller_007]

Next time you feel like doing something brash, like removing a ubiquitous, standardized, and completely functional feature from your products, such as the headphone jack in order to promote wireless listening, why don't you go ahead and make the Bluetooth headphones available FIRST?

Or better yet, don't eliminate the jack at all. This isn't the 3.5" floppy in the age of CDs that we're talking about here. The headphone jack works well, it's standard, and it's on literally almost EVERYTHING that outputs sound.

And now Apple is set to announce tomorrow that its professional line of laptops will be moving completely to USB-C.

This company has lost its way and its mind.

Re:An idea for Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

Next time you feel like doing something brash, like removing a ubiquitous, standardized, and completely functional feature from your products, such as the headphone jack in order to promote wireless listening, why don't you go ahead and make the Bluetooth headphones available FIRST?

Bluetooth headphones have literally been available for years. These are just the first Apple-branded bluetooth earphones. iPhone 7s come with Lightning Earpods in the box, and you have the option of using any of the thousands of different Bluetooth earphones that have been on the market for years. This delay is not the disaster you are making it out to be.

Re:An idea for Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet iPhones users have been buying/using 3.5mm corded headphones by the hundreds of millions, WHILE bluetooth has been available.

For something soooooo superior, you'd think no one would be using corded headphones.

Yet another device to plug in, and other synced devices to pull away the iPhone from your bluetooth headphones. That simply means it's not ready yet.

Re:An idea for Apple

[uncqual]

You also have to be careful to use the correct drill bit - titanium nitrite is recommended as it improves the signal quality once the headphone jack has been exposed.

Any drill bit you use will leave trace material on the surface of the hole and this of course effects the quality of the signal (the residue acts as an unpredictable unbalanced shield -- obviously bad news).

Although titanium nitrite bits result in much higher sound quality than HSS bits, some experts suggest using Monster drill bits to be sure to get the best quality sound, Although my experiments indicate this only yields a minor improvement over titanium nitrite bits, the true audiophile may want to make the investment in spite of the cost of the Monster bits. One reason they work better is that Monster bits have a more even proprietary coating on them so it rubs off more evenly and Monster tests each bit using scientific quality assurance methods to insure each bit meets their standards.

Re:An idea for Apple

[Maritz]

Bluetooth headphones have literally been available for years.

Bluetooth headphones are shit.

Re:An idea for Apple

[jabuzz]

Right because fully waterproof to IP68 3.5mm jack sockets have not been available for years already?

Sony have been doing waterproof phones now since early 2013 at the latest with waterproof jack sockets that required no plug and/or cover. By the time they got to the Z5 they even had waterproof microUSB sockets that don't need a cover as well.

The claims about needing to do it for waterproofing is just utter rubbish that Apple fan boys lap up because they don't know any better.

Re:An idea for Apple

[Custard Horse]

All the iphone owners I know (mostly my kids and their friends) get through many sets of earphones a year. They are always replaced with another set of wired headphones at minimal cost. I've not seen a bluetooth replacement being favoured.

As for the listening and charging issue - I didn't foresee that being a problem (I don't listen to music on my phone) but those users I have spoken to say that it's a deal breaker.

Not being able to listen with wired headphones whilst charging the phone is a real problem. I guess if you view the phone as your social and media hub, you need to be able to charge it whatever you happen to be doing. That's just not possible with the iphone 7 unless you are forced to use BT headphones. That's not the complete solution as your headphones are discharging whilst you are charging your phone which means you need a wired set for when the BT headphones die and your phone is charged.

Re:An idea for Apple

[ausekilis]

Most iPhone users just use the ones that came in the box. And they'll do the same with the Lightning ones.

This right here is the rub. Apple made a huge deal about removing the headphone jack (COURAGE!) and suggesting the real replacement for their iBuds (or whatever) were to be these bluetooth headphones for $169. They manufactured an inconvenience to entice their customers to spend more money. It's really like getting that new shiny $2000 MacBook, then they say "Oh, you want to be able to charge it? well, we can sell you this $500 wireless charger because we did away with the charging port. We needed the space to put in this handy piece of plastic."

So now they are saying "Remember all that courage we showed when we removed the headphone jack and promised that these $170 headphones of the savior would be all you need? Yea... about that.... the headphones suck and we can't sell them to you yet".

Re:An idea for Apple

[LynnwoodRooster]

How appropriate: "You are in the Apple Ecosystem. There is no Escape."

Re:Amazing

[AHuxley]

The really great staff now have to look after the average new staff. With less of the really great staff getting real work done, issues start to be seen in public.

They don't want to hurt iPhone 7 sales

[HumanEmulator]

My theory is that the headphones are ready, but Apple is worried that when people realize Bluetooth headphones are fundamentally unreliable, it will hurt iPhone 7 sales. Better to wait until further into the holiday shopping season and prevent any bad press or YouTube videos from impacting phone sales, then drop the headphones closer to the holidays so bad reviews haven't had time to sink into the public consciousness to hurt the gift-giving headphone sales.

It's not that I think these are going to be bad headphones, as much as Bluetooth headphones just don't work a lot of places and a lot of people are going to be disappointed.