Apple AirPods now shipping to preorder customers
Customers lucky enough to have snagged a pair of Apple AirPods when product sales went live last week recently received word that their orders have shipped, and are scheduled to arrive as promised on Dec 21.
As seen above, early bird buyers who placed orders within the first two hours of AirPods availability began to receive shipping confirmations by email Saturday morning.
AirPods, Apple's first branded wireless headphone product, went up for sale on Dec. 13 after a month of delays. A hotly anticipated item, initial supply was quickly depleted, pushing back shipment estimates to four weeks mere hours after release. Apple's webpage shows current delivery dates moved into February.
Alongside preorder shipments, AirPods are rumored to land in brick-and-mortar Apple retail stores, as well as mobile carrier outlets and Authorized Apple Resellers, as soon as Monday. Exact store allotments are unknown, but judging by preorder demand, supplies will be extremely constrained.
Prior to last week's surprise release, some speculated Apple would miss the lucrative holiday shopping season due to unforeseen production issues related to audio syncing. AppleInsider's own sources corroborated reports of engineering problems, but said AirPods was on track to ship before year's end.
Earlier this week, AppleInsider took an early look at a production model and came away impressed with the hardware. Flawless syncing between each earbud, combined with deep software integration and touch controls, makes for an immersive experience not found with competing products.
For those who didn't make the preorder window, AppleInsider is giving away a pair of AirPods to one lucky winner. To enter, subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave a comment in our AirPods giveaway video or follow us on Instagram. The entry period ends at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 21, and the winner will be announced in a video posted to our YouTube channel on Dec. 22.
As seen above, early bird buyers who placed orders within the first two hours of AirPods availability began to receive shipping confirmations by email Saturday morning.
AirPods, Apple's first branded wireless headphone product, went up for sale on Dec. 13 after a month of delays. A hotly anticipated item, initial supply was quickly depleted, pushing back shipment estimates to four weeks mere hours after release. Apple's webpage shows current delivery dates moved into February.
Alongside preorder shipments, AirPods are rumored to land in brick-and-mortar Apple retail stores, as well as mobile carrier outlets and Authorized Apple Resellers, as soon as Monday. Exact store allotments are unknown, but judging by preorder demand, supplies will be extremely constrained.
Prior to last week's surprise release, some speculated Apple would miss the lucrative holiday shopping season due to unforeseen production issues related to audio syncing. AppleInsider's own sources corroborated reports of engineering problems, but said AirPods was on track to ship before year's end.
Earlier this week, AppleInsider took an early look at a production model and came away impressed with the hardware. Flawless syncing between each earbud, combined with deep software integration and touch controls, makes for an immersive experience not found with competing products.
For those who didn't make the preorder window, AppleInsider is giving away a pair of AirPods to one lucky winner. To enter, subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave a comment in our AirPods giveaway video or follow us on Instagram. The entry period ends at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 21, and the winner will be announced in a video posted to our YouTube channel on Dec. 22.
Comments
Apple missed the holiday season big time with this one. They touted an end of October release and over shot that date by a country mile. You rightfully point that out, but I'd hardly call this releasing in time for the holiday season. A handful of people who happened to order within a couple of hours of a release that was a surprise (December, not October) will luck out. However, there are going to be a lot of disappointed people this holiday season.
It does seem, however, that Apple may have missed blockbuster sales opportunity for the Christmas season.
Well, think of the disaster that would have followed if they were released on time, but didn't work right.
This will most likely be yet another shining new product to add to Apple's ever-more-attractive ecosystem of products, which continues to attract more and more customers every year. This next trip around the sun will bring us yet another holiday shopping season before you know it.
Should you decide to announce it, then have to delay, be aware that you will face some flak, more so if your product is the perfect accessory for another product you announced jointly with it.
If the delay is really due to something that just came out of the blue, then come forward and explain it.
Let's not be fooled, they announced the product knowing the risks. They took the risk because Xmas is a key shopping season and just announcing the product would have people holding their cash back, waiting to order.
If in the end you screw up, just accept the blame.
OF COURSE they wanted to ship these as originally planned. And they COULD HAVE, but some problem UNFORESEEN issue must have arisen, or they WOULD HAVE.
So among their options were to ship a product that fell short of their design goals, and deal with the flak, or wait until they deem the product ready, then ship and deal with the flak.
They had a scheduled date, something came up, they announced a delay, and after a short delay started shipping. It will take time. These I WANT MINE NOW temper tantrums and mindless bitchfests would be funny if not so pathetic.
On the flip side, congratulations to those who got in on the first wave. The fickle goddess Opportunity slammed the window shut before even I knew it was open. Because a ton of people will be haunting the stores for these, I'll probably make one attempt since I want to make one trip anyway. Otherwise I'll just order and wait. In the meantime I'll make like Diogenes and look for honest reviews as they surface.
To the point of "they shouldn't have announced it" - you'll have to understand the dynamics between design, engineering, marketing, partnering, supply chain, sales channels, setting customer expectations, etc. Many of these functions require lead time, planning, logistics, and basically lots of teams working in parallel towards a coordinated release. Of course there is an expectation that all participants will hold up their end of the deal to make the dates when they "go public." But with any complex engineering endeavor there can be unexpected late breaking surprises in any function, not just engineering, that throws a monkey wrench into the release. Dock workers can go on strike and your raw material or finished goods are stuck in transit. Stuff happens and you deal with it. Empty Christmas stockings are a bummer but that's life.
its like some people are personally offended that stuff happens. but you want to talk about people being generous to certain companies -- see samsung. phones literally explode, no big thing. ditching the headphone jack, no outcry. only Apple.
What does accepting the blame mean to you? It's a new product so they delayed it, there's nothing more to be done. They don't need to take a full page ad out and apologize. Perspective, people.