Currently, The AirPods themselves are an incredible line of business within Apple. Both in terms of figures and in terms of product, quality and own brand. Apple has four different models of AirPods for sale (2nd and 3rd generation, Pro and Max) and despite that, they are not “cheap” wireless headphones. Even if we already know that at Apple it is tradition. According to analyst Jeff Pu, Apple is reportedly working to boost the AirPods lineup with a ‘Lite’ model that rivals on price with other competing entry models.
Despite the popularity and increasing sales of “accessories,” where Apple encompasses AirPods, Jeff Pu reports that, based on industry sources, demand for AirPods will decline in 2023. He even hits hard numbers, where AirPods shipments would drop from 73 million units (or pairs of units) in 2022 to the 63 million that would be expected in 2023. He attributes this to “weak” demand for AirPods 3 already that Apple would not launch new models during this new year. Although we’ve all been waiting for a new release, at least, of the Max.
Jeff Pu asserts that the Cupertino company worked on the AirPods “Lite”. Despite this, it is not known what they would look like exactly what characteristics they will have, but Pu describes it as a “cheaper product” to compete with non-Apple headphones.
With the launch of AirPods 3 in 2021, Apple kept the previous generation of AirPods 2 available in stores with a current price of 159 dollars, while AirPods 3 cost 209 dollars in its cheapest version. That being the case, we assume that these “Lite” AirPods will cost less than 159 dollars. Another (and not too far-fetched) option for Apple would be to simply lower the price of the second-generation AirPods even further, perhaps to $99, the price of the HomePod Mini.
In 2022, Apple introduced the second generation of AirPods Pro with significant improvements including better noise cancellation and a new charging case with the U1 chip to easily locate the device. However, there are not too many rumors about when Apple plans to renew the AirPods Max despite everything pointing to this 2023. Will they arrive with new features and colors as planned?
