Apple does its greatest to maintain upcoming product launches a secret, however this isn’t all the time simple. Provide chains must be briefed, regulatory database entries must be filed, software program for different merchandise needs to be up to date to work with the brand new ones. There are many clues for eagle-eyed analysts to identify.
The newest instance of this issues an unreleased Apple audio product which seems to be on the verge of launch. We don’t but know what it’s, however there’s an honest likelihood it’s the long-awaited AirPods Professional 3.
In line with MacRumors, Apple this week up to date its codebase “with a numerical reference to an unreleased audio product.” This numerical reference is a Bluetooth identifier used to allow wi-fi headphones to sync with different gadgets.
Apple’s checklist of such identifiers contains all of its present audio gadgets and, as of this week, one mysterious additional entry. The brand new ID, 8239, applies to no recognized AirPods or Beats gadgets, so it nearly definitely means Apple is about to launch one thing new.
Apple sells three varieties of AirPods: the usual fashions, the AirPods Professional, and the AirPods Max. The usual AirPods have been up to date comparatively not too long ago, in September 2024, so it’s unlikely we’re about to get one other set of these. It could possibly be a brand new set of AirPods Max, since they got here out again in 2020 and we’re nonetheless ready for the second technology, however once more, Apple did technically replace them final September so as to add USB-C and little else. Which leaves the AirPods Professional, whose second-gen mannequin got here out in September 2022 and is due to this fact ripe for an replace.
(You possibly can learn in regards to the upcoming variations of Apple’s wi-fi headphones in our new AirPods information.)
However that’s not the one chance. Apple additionally owns the Beats model, and we is likely to be about to get a new product from that line. It’d even launch a brand new set of AirPods that we’ve by no means seen earlier than. In different phrases, watch this area, as a result of one thing fascinating is about to occur.
