first published week of: 12/12/2016
GIZMODO
Apple’s AirPods have been plagued by delays after they were announced alongside the iPhone 7 earlier this year, and now we might finally know exactly why. A new report in the Wall Street Journal says that Apple engineers are still struggling to make the product ready for mass production, citing a sync issue and a microphone issue. The report cites a single anonymous source: a “person familiar with their development” Otherwise, details are thin.
AirPods were Apple’s $160 answer to its latest iPhone missing a headphone jack, and the company originally said they’d ship in late October. Now, Apple hasn’t offered an actual ship date. The Wall Street Journal reports:
A person familiar with the development of the AirPod said the trouble appears to stem from Apple’s effort to chart a new path for wireless headphones. In most other wireless headphones, only one earpiece receives a signal from the phone via wireless Bluetooth technology; it then transmits the signal to the other earpiece.