Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

AirPods, AirPods Pro shortages could worsen due to coronavirus outbreak

By Simon Cohen February 7, 2020

Apple’s AirPods Pro have been under constant demand since their debut in late 2019. It all started with a two-week back-order after they sold out on Black Friday, and the situation has only gotten worse since. Now, that back-order period could grow longer and even start to affect the regular AirPod, if a recent report from Asian Nikkei Report is accurate. “Luxshare Precision Industry, also known as Luxshare-ICT, Goertek and Inventec, the three key manufacturers of the AirPods, have halted the majority of production,” it said.

Recommended Videos

The production stoppage is mostly due to a lack of key parts that are used to assemble Apple’s true wireless earbuds. “The three companies now have at most two weeks’ worth of materials and components needed for AirPods assembly, and must wait for component makers across China to restart operations in order to receive fresh supplies,” the report said.

Currently, Apple.com is showing delivery times of just a few days for its AirPods and AirPods with the wireless charging case. Wait times for the AirPods Pro, however, are considerably longer and now stand at about a month: If you were to order them today, Apple is committing to a March 9 delivery date.

Suppliers and manufacturers are expected to return to work on Monday, but it’s still unknown how the disruption will ultimately affect the availability of the three AirPods models. “Because of the virus outbreak, it has already been about two weeks since the assemblers have shipped any new AirPods series,” a source told Asian Nikkei Report.

Digital Trends reached out to both Apple and Luxshare Precision Industry for comment, but neither responded by the time of publication. We will update this article when we hear back.

Recently, Apple’s AirPods Pro were affected by a firmware update that reportedly reduced the effectiveness of one of its best features — active noise cancellation.

If you’ve grown tired of waiting for the AirPods Pro, or you’re concerned that the delay could grow even longer, we’ve assembled a list of the best AirPods Pro alternatives. It’s possible that the situation affecting the production of Apple’s AirPods could hit these true wireless earbuds too, but for the moment, they’re much easier to come by.

Topics

Contributing Editor, A/V

Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…

Audio / Video

Apple AirPlay 2: the wireless audio and video streaming tech fully explained

Apple AirPlay 2 control center.

When it comes to listening to music wirelessly, most people think of Bluetooth. It's built into just about every smartphone on the planet, and a huge number of tablets, desktops, and laptops have it too. But if you own Apple hardware, you need to know about a Bluetooth alternative that works over Wi-Fi, called Apple AirPlay 2.

AirPlay 2 is much more than just a simple pairing option: It lets you send both audio and video to a growing variety of devices, such as TVs, speakers, Apple TV boxes, Macs, and home theater receivers, all sans wires. If you own more than one AirPlay 2-compatible audio device, you can stream your music to just one of them, some of them, or all of them without losing synchronization. If that sounds cool, stay with us. We're going to point out all of the exciting features of AirPlay 2 and show you how to use it.
What is AirPlay anyway?

Mobile

OnePlus Buds Pro 2’s spatial audio makes me want to ditch the AirPods Pro

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 black case on a cork coaster and black earbuds on a white and gray table top.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Bluetooth earbuds are among a half-dozen gadgets OnePlus launched at its Cloud 11 event. These earbuds intend to elevate your sound experience with a rich and highly customizable audio profile, Google's Fast Pair support, high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) audio through the LDAC and LHDC Bluetooth audio codecs, Dolby Audio, and noise cancellation.

While these features have essentially been carried over -- and slightly improved -- over the first generation of the OnePlus Buds Pro launched last year, the Buds Pro 2 are equipped with spatial audio capabilities that help create a realistic and experiential 3D audio space around you. Along with spatial audio, the earbuds also support head tracking to simulate an ambiance that changes as you move your head around.

Audio / Video

Apple AirPods Max 2: what we know, what we want, and how much it will cost

The Apple AirPods Max on a surface, viewed from the side.

Apple's first set of wireless headphones -- the AirPods Max -- launched to great fanfare in 2020. At $549, the aluminum-clad cans raised eyebrows for their price and design. But despite their cost and some odd design decisions (like the lack of an off switch), reviewers were nearly unanimous with their praise, especially for the Max's standout features, active noise cancellation (ANC), and transparency mode. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely.

Do we actually know anything about the AirPods Max 2? No, we do not. Given that the original AirPods Max are more than two years old, we'd have expected at least some hints at this point, if not full-on leaks. But so far all we've got are crickets.