Redesigned AirPods are coming soon, report claims
Apple will release redesigned AirPods in 2021 and follow up with a new version of AirPods Pro in 2022, according to a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Debby Wu, citing people "with knowledge of the matter."
The non-Pro AirPods would also have a new case design, and the AirPods Pro would include new motion-sensing technology that would be used for fitness tracking.
It seems that earbuds and in-ear headphones are the immediate focus but not new over-ear headphones. Apple just launched its over-ear headphones, AirPods Max, late last year. The sources say that Apple is not currently working on a new version of those.
Apple classifies AirPods as wearables, occupying the same product category within the company as the Apple Watch. Each time Apple reports its quarterly earnings to shareholders, this category is one of the two biggest areas of growth for the company, alongside services.
As the Bloomberg story also notes, Apple now rakes in $30 billion in revenue annually from wearables alone. The iPhone still dominates the company's revenues, though. Wearables account for just over 10 percent of sales.
