The AirPods Max have plenty to offer. While their price might seem steep, Apple fans will find many desirable features in these over-ear headphones. Nonetheless, they occupy a unique and not-so-pleasant position among Apple’s product lineup.
AirPods Max: Not Apple’s Sole Niche Offering
Earlier this week, Mark Gurman shared some unfortunate news for fans of AirPods Max:
Apple currently has no solid plans for a significant update to AirPods Max. Although they aren’t flying off the shelves, there is still enough of a market—particularly in upscale gyms in cities like Los Angeles and New York—for these $550 headphones, even with their high price tag and outdated technology.
Gurman’s reasoning is understandable: if a product is deemed too niche for investment, it makes sense for Apple to allocate its resources to more promising projects.
However, when considering Apple’s other specialized products, none stand out quite like the AirPods Max—and not in a favorable way.
- The Mac Pro is one of Apple’s niche offerings, yet it regularly receives updates to the latest Apple silicon.
- Apple TV 4K, while also niche, continues to get solid feature updates in tvOS, despite rare hardware changes.
- Another emerging niche product is the Vision Pro, which Apple is heavily investing in as it develops its Vision platform.
In Apple’s broader product lineup, the device that resembles AirPods Max the most is arguably the HomePod.
While both of these devices focus on audio, it’s evident that Apple is content to let them languish without significant investment.
The original HomePod debuted in 2018, with its successor arriving five years later in 2023, and a HomePod mini released in between.
Initially, Apple provided regular feature updates for the HomePod line, but those have noticeably slowed down in the past couple of years.
Although Apple still delivers new HomePod software updates, meaningful enhancements have been scarce for some time now.
The Distinct Dilemma of AirPods Max
While the HomePod may be neglected by Apple, it arguably enjoys a more favorable position than AirPods Max, as there are currently no competing Apple products in the same category that overshadow it.
Conversely, the AirPods Max have been outperformed in several ways by other items in the AirPods lineup.
- AirPods Pro 2 feature new functionalities like Hearing Aid, Hearing Test, and Hearing Protection, along with Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and Personalized Volume.
- AirPods 4 share many of the same features found in AirPods Pro 2.
As highlighted on Apple’s AirPods comparison page, one major drawback is that you can’t simply trigger Siri on AirPods Max by saying ‘Siri’; you have to use the full phrase ‘Hey Siri.’
Yet, remarkably, both of Apple’s in-ear AirPods models come at significantly lower prices than AirPods Max, even though they boast far superior features overall.
This creates a striking contrast in pricing, paired with a significant feature discrepancy that favors the cheaper models.
There’s no other Apple product that receives such minimal investment, while being so thoroughly outclassed by its less expensive counterparts.
I’m not a product designer, so I can’t speak to the complexities of enhancing AirPods Max. However, it seems feasible to tackle this issue without a massive redesign. For instance, upgrading from the H1 chip to the H2 chip could enable modern AirPods features to be integrated into the premium AirPods Max.
Will that significantly boost sales? It’s hard to say. Nonetheless, it might resolve the pressing issues currently plaguing AirPods Max.
Do you believe Apple should invest more in AirPods Max? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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