If you’re planning to pick up some last minute AirPods as a Christmas gift, sadly you may have left it a little bit too late — because both Apple’s website, and those belonging to other retailers we checked, are all showing that the next-gen earbuds are sold out.
Apple is now quoting the first or second week of January for delivery, having previously got shipping down to just 3-5 days.
Best Buy, Verizon, Sprint, and other online stores are showing similarly reduced availability, all after the holiday season. It may still be worth going into brick-and-mortar retail stores to check for additional units, but prepare to be disappointed.
This will mark the second Christmas in a row where AirPod availability is limited. Last year, the AirPods were due to ship in October, after being first shown at Apple’s September iPhone event. Unfortunately, manufacturing issues meant that they didn’t wind up arriving until the middle of December. Shortly after that, AirPod demand exceeded supply, and shipping times were pushed back past Christmas into 2017.
Despite this mishap, and the fact that Apple’s HomePod smart speaker is now not going to ship in time for the holiday, Apple has had a good 2017 from a shipping perspective. The iPhone X shipments are now down to less than a week, and Apple’s even doing guaranteed next day shipping for products which are in stock.
If you are looking for a substitute for the AirPods, you can always check out the similarly wireless Beats X earpods, priced at $99.
