A new report in The Wall Street Journal sheds some insight on the reasons for Apple’s delay in shipping its new AirPods wireless earphones. Citing people familiar with the product’s development, the report explains that the main reason for the delay has been related to engineering challenges around the AirPods unique new wireless technology, specifically in ensuring that one AirPods is able to properly transmit a synchronized audio signal to the other.
A person familiar with the development of the AirPod said the trouble appears to stem from Apple’s effort to chart a new path for wireless headphones. In most other wireless headphones, only one earpiece receives a signal from the phone via wireless Bluetooth technology; it then transmits the signal to the other earpiece.
Apple has said AirPod earpieces each receive independent signals from an iPhone, Mac or other Apple device. But Apple must ensure that both earpieces receive audio at the same time to avoid distortion, the person familiar with their development said. That person said Apple also must resolve what happens when a user loses one of the earpieces or the battery dies.
When Apple originally debuted its new AirPods, it had promised they would ship by late October, however a few weeks later the company announced that the release would be delayed, with no date given. Responding to a customer inquiry at the end of November, Apple CEO Tim Cook allegedly indicated that the AirPods would ship “in the next few weeks.”
