Apple delays rollout of the AirPods

Apple's new wireless earbuds, the Airpods, won't be released in the “late October” time frame as was previously promised by the company. Apple says that the product is not yet ready and that it still needs more time to release it.

“The early response to AirPods has been incredible. We don’t believe in shipping a product before it’s ready, and we need a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers,” an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch in an interview.

During the September launch, Apple provided an answer to the removal of the headphone jack in the form of its AirPod wireless earbuds.

While AirPods are meant in part to embrace the wireless future pushed by the iPhone 7 (which lacks a traditional headphone jack), the new earbuds are somewhat different than traditional Bluetooth earbuds too. For instance, they feature a dedicated W1 chip that makes pairing and switching between devices extremely easy compared to most Bluetooth speakers and headphones.

Apple’s AirPods have generally been well received in early reviews, with most criticism being aimed at the lack of volume controls without relying on Siri. It appears that Apple feels the same way and is taking more time to fix either hardware or software issues that prevent them from being customer ready. No timeline was given as far as future availability.

The AirPods are a brand new piece of hardware for Apple, which incorporates a half dozen new technologies including a bespoke wireless chip. It couldn’t have been easy to manufacture and it seems that’s being reflected in these delays. Apple has placed the AirPods at the centre of a variety of strategies surrounding wireless audio and AI, so it’s important that it gets the launch right. Apple has already released two products that include this W1 chip (Beats Solo3 and Powerbeats3 Wireless) with one more on the way (BeatsX).

There’s no signal for how long to expect the delay to last, but it's presumed that the AirPods would go on sale at some point in November. The AirPods will surely be supply-constrained through the holiday quarter once hey are available to purchase.