There Might Not Be Enough AirPods This Year. Here’s Why — From Apple Park

According to a paywalled report by Nikkei Asia, Apple will be cutting down AirPods production by 25 to 30% this year.

Apple’s reasoning for cutting down AirPods production is simply due to a lack of demand for the wireless headphones.

This news doesn’t come as a surprise. Over the years, other tech companies such as Samsung and Huawei have been stealing away Apple’s headphone market share with their own true wireless headphones.

Consumers responded positively to the flood of wireless headphones, partly because they now have broader choices of headphones to buy.

Apple’s Dominance Coming To An End

Last year, Apple controlled a 31% share of the Bluetooth true wireless headphone market. The AirPods and other accessories made up over 11% of Apple’s total revenue in the last quarter of 2020.

Today, consumers are opting out for cheaper headphone alternatives that deliver more or less the same as the AirPods do. These cheaper headphones have stolen a majority of its market shares, resulting in a fall from 60% in 2018, to 47% in 2019, and to 31% in 2020.

What all this means is that Apple’s reign in the bluetooth headphone market might be coming to an end.

New AirPods 3 This Year?

Nevertheless, new leaked reports have also shown that Apple is working on an AirPods 3 that will replace the previous AirPods 2.

The new AirPods 3 is reported to have a similar design as the Pro model. They will also have a shorter “stem” compared to the second generation headphones. In addition, they will most likely not carry the Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency feature.

With news about a new headphones in the air, it’s unlikely that Apple will go down without a fight.

We’ll be reporting more with the latest news about the headphones as soon as we hear them. Stay tuned.

Originally published at https://www.fromapplepark.com on April 28, 2021.