Apple AirPods Pro 2 launch tipped again to happen later this year
India Today
AirPods Pro 2, the successor to the AirPods Pro may arrive this fall in the US. That translates to sometime in September, October, and November.
Apple AirPods Pro has not seen an upgrade in a long time. The first-generation AirPods Pro arrived roughly three years back, offering iPhone users features such as active noise-cancellation, sweat resistance, and later, through an update, spatial listening. Since they have been around for a long time, those who bought AirPods Pro early are facing battery issues. In other words, they are waiting for an upgrade, and it looks like this year, they could finally see it. Apple is once again rumoured to launch the AirPods Pro 2 later this year, while around the same time, the AirPods Max headphones may get new colourways.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who is a credible source of information about Apple and its products, said in his Power On newsletter that the successor to the AirPods Pro may arrive this fall in the US. That translates to sometime in September, October, and November — the same time as the launch of the iPhone 14 series. That means Apple’s fall event may be jampacked with several launches.
Gurman reiterated that the Apple AirPods Pro 2, or whatever Apple ends up calling its top-end truly wireless earbuds, will still support active noise-cancellation, but the quality is going to be much better than the existing one.
Design-wise, there could be major changes in the AirPods Pro 2. Apple could remove the stem of its earbuds to create what could look very similar to Galaxy Buds or Pixel Buds. In the absence of a stem, the tip of the earbuds will need to be wider to support touch controls better. A major improvement in the AirPods Pro would be to support lossless audio files. Apple already offers lossless files on Apple Music, so it makes sense for the upcoming AirPods Pro to support that, even though it could be a little complicated to stream those files over a wireless connection.
Other than the AirPods Pro 2, Apple is also poised to launch new colour options for the AirPods Max at the same time. The existing AirPods Max has been there since 2019, so it makes sense for Apple to introduce it in new paints. But while new colours will be a much-needed refresh for the AirPods Max, Gurman is expecting a drop in the price of the headphones. “$550 is absurd for those headphones,” said Gurman in his note. In India, the AirPods Max costs Rs 66,100.
Gurman is mostly correct, but we never know what Apple has planned for its products and if the AirPods Pro 2 and the price drop in AirPods Max are real. We shall know the official word on the launch day, sometime later this year.