With all eyes on the imminent iPhone and Apple Watch launches, Apple-watching pundits were surprised this week when the company itself accidentally leaked a video of some new camera-equipped AirPods in action. But if you think the existence of an instructional video means the product must be ready for launch, you’re in for some bad news.
According to the well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, the leak changes nothing, and the devices still won’t launch until 2027. The video apparently exists because the AirPods have been in development for a long time and were originally slated to launch in 2026. They entered advanced testing among Apple employees in the spring, Gurman claims, but production delays made that timeframe impracticable, and Apple has known this for some time.
“By the summer [of 2026], when the company had sought to begin producing the earbuds, supply chain and software snags led Apple to postpone the product until 2027,” Gurman writes. By summer, he means mid-June, more than two months ago. Those snags haven’t miraculously disappeared just because of the macOS leak. Gurman says they’re still being resolved.
Worse, the delay until 2027 doesn’t mean January. It means late 2027. When covering the snags in June, Bloomberg said the camera-equipped AirPods would come out “around the same time as a next-generation foldable phone and a fresh iPhone model that will mark that product’s 20th anniversary,” which means the fall of next year. And that timing doesn’t appear to have changed.
Apple only just launched the AirPods Pro 3 last fall, and it’s not uncommon for two years to pass between releases. Still, the whole situation is rather disappointing. Apple has had one of the biggest products of next year thoroughly spoiled, and fans who may have had their hopes up still have a long wait.