AirPods lineup ‘probably won’t get any updates of note in 2023’

Apple likely won’t upgrade its line of AirPods with any major improvements this year, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggesting in the latest edition of his weekly Power On newsletter that Apple has no substantial upgrades planned to its AirPods, AirPods Pro or AirPods Max in the near future.

2023 is expected to be a slow year for Apple’s range of existing products as the company puts all its efforts into its long-rumored AR/MR headset which may finally be announced in the spring after being in development for years, with Gurman saying the year ahead could be “muted,” with Apple pulling engineers from other projects to focus on its AR/MR efforts.

For example, Apple may not release any new upgrades to the iPad mini, iPad Air and entry-level iPad at all this year, and according to Gurman, “there are no plans” for an updated Apple TV 4K set-top-box either.

Image: Apple

Apple’s AirPods Pro received their most recent upgrade in late 2023 after being released in October 2019, marking close to three years after the first-generation was released. Apple’s standard AirPods were updated in late 2021, featuring an AirPods Pro-style redesign, spatial audio support, sweat and water resistance, and more.

AirPods Max, Apple’s high-end over-ear AirPods haven’t been updated since their original launch in 2020, although this comes as no surprise as Gurman has previously reported that the iPhone maker isn’t working on a second-generation.