AirPods

New AirPods Pro 2 will debut in 2022, according to a note from analyst Ming -Chi-Kuo seen by iMore. Indeed, he expects Apple’s earbuds to ship 100 million units overall that year.

Kuo says that while Apple’s AirPods business will “decline in the short term (2H21–1H22)” he expects that to be rectified by the second half of the year. Short term, however, lower than expected demand is thought to mean Apple will ship up to 75 million units which is 10 million down on the previous prediction. In terms of AirPods as a whole, Kuo says that he expects Apple to ship more than 100 million units in 2022, even if the new products don’t feature an “innovative experience.” Such an experience has been talked about before — previous reports have suggested some form of health tracking could be added to AirPods Pro specifically.

It turns out that no AirPods will be able to play lossless audio when the feature arrives on Apple Music.  This includes the US$549 AirPods Max, even when they are using a wired connection, The Verge reported.

“Lossless audio is not supported on AirPods, any model,” an Apple spokesperson said by email. “AirPods Max wired listening mode accepts analog output sources only. AirPods Max currently does not support digital audio formats in wired mode.” It makes complete sense that the AirPods and AirPods Pro have no way of playing lossless audio. They’re totally wireless, and Apple supports the AAC codec over Bluetooth. AAC sounds plenty good, but it’s nowhere near the bit rate of CD-quality or high-resolution tracks. To do any better, Apple would need to come up with some new wireless codec — its own version of Sony’s LDAC, sort of — or make these things play music over Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth. None of that is happening today or by June when Apple Music will start offering lossless. Things are a little more complicated with the AirPods Max, which can be plugged into audio sources with a cable. However, it turns out that even if you have Apple’s $35 Lightning-to-3.5mm cable plugged into a device that’s streaming lossless Apple Music tracks, you’re not going to hear the full audio fidelity of the source.