There’s a great report from Mark Gurman on Bloomberg today - let me summarise it for you.
Seven years ago, Apple was criticised for the introduction of AirPods and the removal of iPhone’s headphone jack. Today, these wireless earbuds are a top product for Apple, contributing billions to their annual revenue and positively impacting iPhone sales. And you see them everywhere.
The success of the AirPods also helped boost the company’s Wearables, Home and Accessories category, outpacing both iPad and Mac in sales growth. Revenue quadrupled since AirPods’ launch reaching $41 billion last year.
Apple quickly improved upon the AirPods’ original design—introducing hands-free Siri support, better battery life, noise cancellation features with Pro models—and is now preparing for further enhancements including health-related features like hearing tests and body-temperature measurements.
In efforts to position AirPods as a potential hearing aid—a market worth $10 billion annually—Apple has added features like Conversation Boost and Live Listen but awaits regulatory approval. The US Food & Drug Administration eased purchase rules on hearing aids last year which offers opportunities for companies like Apple who have started hiring engineers from traditional hearing aid manufacturers.
Plans include introducing sensors that can measure body temperature via wearer’s ear canal—an approach deemed more accurate than wrist temperature collected by current devices such as Apple Watch Series 8. Though health-focused enhancements may take time to develop; other changes occur sooner with plans to shift towards USB-C charging ports paralleling similar moves across other products in line with ongoing developments within industry standards.
Despite these anticipated changes, don’t expect an immediate new launch for all-new AirPods Pro hardware still under development following their three-year upgrade cycle established since its launch back in 2019.
Recently at Worldwide Developers Conference, previews were showcased featuring upcoming additions alongside iOS17 roll-out plans inclusive of several long-awaited functions such as mute/unmute button during calls or improvements made around device switch capabilities among paired devices plus adaptive audio feature enabling automatic shifts between noise-cancellation versus transparency modes.
Some of these changes should have been in place years ago - others are welcome improvements that I’m looking forward to.
