It's now been one year since the current AirPods launched, but a new report says we may have to wait another year for a new model to be released.
Apple is working on its third generation AirPods but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumors) claims that they won't go into mass production until the first half of 2021. Kuo claims that the biggest update to these new AirPods will be internally, suggesting that the design will remain the same.
Inside these third gen AirPods, Apple will purportedly replace the rigid-flex PCB+SMT design of the current AirPods with the System-in-Package used by the AirPods Pro.
Kuo goes on to claim that the market is expecting a new AirPods model in the second half of 2020, but that this is more likely to be new Beats headphones rather than new AirPods.
Today's report also mentions that Apple is expected to begin mass production of its oft-rumored over-ear headphones in mid-2020, suggesting that they could launch to the public later this year. Rumors say that these premium headphones could offer noise cancellation as well as user-replaceable ear pads and headband padding for more personalization.
Looking farther into the future, Kuo says that a new version of AirPods Pro will go into mass production in Q4 2021 and into Q1 2022, which means we may not see a new version of AirPods Pro launch until early 2022. The AirPods Pro are only about 6 months old right now and are a premium product with a price to match, though, and so we're not too surprised to hear that Apple may not be in a rush to roll out a new model.
