Last month, Apple announced that it was delaying the launch of its AirPods, claiming that the wireless headphones were not yet ready for shipping. Now, according to reports from East Asia, the AirPods might not actually start shipping until January 2017.
The Taiwan-based news site DigiTimes reports the claim of the Chinese-language Economic Daily News that “market watchers” expect Apple supplier Inventec to begin sending the AirPods on their way at this time. Due to AirPods orders, Inventec is expected to see year-on-year growth of 7% in its revenues – which will, should this be borne out, reach about US$23.83 billion in 2017.
While Apple has not commented on this news that the release of the AirPods could be put back beyond the holiday season, upon announcing that the headphones would not be released in October, the company explained: “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”.
Therefore, if we truly won’t be able to get our hands on the AirPods until January, it seems likely that Apple simply needs that extra time in order to address any lingering issues with the headphones. Apple has previously revealed that the AirPods will be priced at $159, but currently isn’t providing a revised release date more specific than “coming soon”.