With AI Siri Delayed, Apple’s AirPods Professional 3 Might Be Subsequent

For those who had been itching for a brand new pair of AirPods Professional, it’s possible you’ll wish to clip these fingernails as a result of that itch may persist for one more yr. In response to one more Apple analyst, the AirPods Professional 3 is likely to be delayed till 2026, extending the earlier rumored timeline that projected a launch this yr. The rumored delay comes courtesy of Apple analyst Jeff Pu, who corroborates earlier intel from fellow analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. If Pu and Kuo’s data are right, it could make the AirPods Professional 2 three years outdated earlier than the discharge of the subsequent era.

Apple Product Timeline by Jeff Pu, GF Securities Hong Kong pic.twitter.com/jEIGMi7Twv

— Jukan Choi (@Jukanlosreve) June 15, 2025

In fashionable Apple time, three years is mainly a century. In iPad years, it’s even longer—these guys can’t go 14 minutes with out releasing one other iteration. And as for normal, non-Apple, human years, I believe it nonetheless looks as if a very long time to attend for one more iteration of AirPods, although if the rumors are to be believed, the replace might be definitely worth the wait. Apple is reportedly contemplating some main upgrades that embrace the addition of a well being sensor and probably—and this can be a bizarre one—cameras.

In response to a earlier report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, infrared cameras is likely to be coming to your subsequent pair of AirPods Professional, which sounds unusual on the floor however makes quite a lot of sense when you begin to unpack some potential use instances. For one, infrared cameras may allow new hand gestures, making them half earbuds and half wearable—a transfer that Apple is clearly fascinated with primarily based on rumors of a well being sensor. What’s much more attention-grabbing, nonetheless, are the cameras’ implications for AI. In response to Gurman’s report, the cameras will “feed knowledge to AI,” which may imply actually any variety of issues, however it could imply one factor for positive, and that’s that AirPods Professional are going to get some type of AI infusion. That dose of AI might be the issue.

Whereas we will’t say for positive what’s delaying Apple’s next-gen AirPods Professional, if I needed to guess, Apple Intelligence has extra to do with the holdup than you assume. Wi-fi earbuds, outdoors of AirPods, have been trending within the route of AI for a few years now. Nothing’s Ear wi-fi earbuds, for instance, had been the primary wi-fi earbuds to roll out a ChatGPT integration, which, as I wrote again then, is theoretically kind of an ideal gadget to showcase AI. There’s an opportunity that Apple is likely to be following in that route with its subsequent pair of AirPods, which is attention-grabbing and probably helpful however problematic when you think about that Apple Intelligence—specifically, its AI Siri improve—hasn’t precisely gone off with out a hitch. If Apple is admittedly fascinated with infusing its AirPods Professional 3 with AI and the entire AI factor isn’t precisely going properly, then…

It’s laborious to say for positive what’s inflicting the delay, however there’s just about just one factor Apple has been fighting as of late, and it’s AI. Including some credence to that principle is the truth that, according to Bloomberg, AI Siri gained’t arrive till spring of subsequent yr. The timing, then, might be preferrred, but when the 2 merchandise are tied collectively, then I wouldn’t maintain your breath since, according to Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, Apple needs to “have [Siri] very a lot in hand” earlier than it begins speaking about dates for “apparent causes.”