Apple does its finest to maintain upcoming product launches a secret, however this isn’t all the time straightforward. Provide chains need to be briefed, regulatory database entries need to 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 most recent 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 a good probability it’s the long-awaited AirPods Professional 3.
In keeping 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 record of such identifiers consists of all of its present audio gadgets and, as of this week, one mysterious further entry. The brand new ID, 8239, applies to no identified AirPods or Beats gadgets, so it nearly actually 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 had been up to date comparatively lately, in September 2024, so it’s unlikely we’re about to get one other set of these. It may very well 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’ll be able to learn in regards to the upcoming variations of Apple’s wi-fi headphones in our new AirPods information.)
However that’s not the one risk. Apple additionally owns the Beats model, and we is perhaps 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 attention-grabbing is about to occur.
