{"slug": "openais-hardware-device-may-partly-compete-with-airpods-ultra-and-lose", "title": "OpenAI’s hardware device may partly compete with AirPods Ultra – and lose", "summary": "OpenAI's upcoming AI hardware device, developed with Jony Ive, may compete with Apple's anticipated AirPods Ultra, but analysts predict the AirPods model will be more popular due to Apple's ecosystem advantage.", "body_md": "[Jony Ive](https://9to5mac.com/guides/jony-ive/) and Sam Altman made a big promise when they teased the launch of [a completely new concept](https://9to5mac.com/2025/05/22/the-io-device-is-mysterious-and-important-what-could-it-be/) in AI hardware more than a year ago.\n\nThe most recent report suggests that [OpenAI](https://9to5mac.com/guides/openai/) may *technically* be delivering on this promise, but could end up at least partly competing with an upcoming [AirPods](https://9to5mac.com/guides/airpods/) model. If so, I can easily see AirPods Ultra proving the more popular choice …", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openais-hardware-device-may-partly-compete-with-airpods-ultra-and-lose", "canonical_source": "https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/15/openais-hardware-device-may-partly-compete-with-airpods-ultra-and-lose/", "published_at": "2026-07-15 13:02:33+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-15 13:23:37.314658+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-products"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Jony Ive", "Sam Altman", "Apple", "AirPods Ultra"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openais-hardware-device-may-partly-compete-with-airpods-ultra-and-lose", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openais-hardware-device-may-partly-compete-with-airpods-ultra-and-lose.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openais-hardware-device-may-partly-compete-with-airpods-ultra-and-lose.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openais-hardware-device-may-partly-compete-with-airpods-ultra-and-lose.jsonld"}}