Third-gen AirPods may be on the way before end of 2019

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AirPods wall display is on show in New York.
What are your hopes for the next AirPods?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

We may only just be getting used to our second-gen AirPods, but Apple is reportedly gearing up to release its third generation AirPods.

According to a new report, the AirPods 3 headphones will go on sale by the end of 2019. The main selling point of the new AirPods will be their smart noise-cancelling tech.

Digitimes, which reported the news, stresses that this is challenging technology to master:

“[Our] sources said that noise cancellation is not a new technology, but a technology hard to harness. On the one hand, semiconductor devices can hardly work without suffering electromagnetic disturbance, and on the other hand how the structural design of the noise forward feedback microphone can be done well to achieve harmonious operation with other devices is a great challenge for designers and assemblers.

In addition, earphones with noise-cancellation function will consume more power than those without, and it remains to be seen how Apple will do to reduce power consumption, the sources indicated.”

The new AirPods will supposedly be manufactured by Inventec and Luxshare Precision. These are the same companies which currently make the AirPods 2. However, while both equally split Apple’s current orders, Inventec may pick up a larger percentage of orders for the third-gen headphones.

A major, major hit for Apple

AirPods are reportedly Apple’s second-best-selling new product of all time. They’re also growing in popularity at an increasingly rapid pace. According to Above Avalon analyst Neil Cybart, Apple is on track to sell 40 million pairs of AirPods in 2019. This represents almost 90 percent year-over-year growth.

According to a recent report from Counterpoint, AirPods made up a massive 60 percent of the overall overall “wireless hearables” market in Q4 2018.

What would be your hopes for a third-generation AirPods product if you had your way? Let us know your thoughts and expectations in the comments below.

Source: Digitimes

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