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Apple’s AirPods Max Announcement Is Missing Something Big
‘End of life’ messaging should be an industry standard
Just in time for the holidays, Apple has announced a new, expensive model of over-ear headphones. The AirPods Max are $549 and will start shipping on December 15.
For that money, you better be certain they’ll last a long time. In this regard, Apple has something of a mixed record. And with a recent precedent set by Sonos that high-end audio gear may not carry you endlessly into the future, you should know exactly what you’re getting into before you make your purchase. While headphones may seem like a fairly straightforward product category, the AirPods Max are augmented with a number of software features that may limit their long-term prospects relative to the mechanical cans of years past.
Let’s quickly take the iPhone, for example. In its environmental report about the new iPhone 12, Apple states that it expects “first owners” will use the device for three or four years. (“First owners” are simply that: the people who own the device for the first time, rather than buying it used.) Depending on your point of view — or, more likely, your salary — that may not seem like an especially long time for a device that starts at $799.
That number also doesn’t tell the full story, and this is where the AirPods Max come in. The software baked into modern gadgets has a direct impact on their overall lifespan. Apple’s “first owner” messaging implies that there is likely a second owner who buys an item like the iPhone used. And indeed there is: A lot of people buy used iPhones every single day, as a cursory search of the sold items on eBay will show you. But no matter the condition of the hardware, an old iPhone’s lifespan is limited by iOS itself: iOS 14, the latest version of Apple’s iPhone operating system that was released this fall, will only support devices as old as the 2015 iPhone 6S. The AirPods Max have the same limitation, according to Apple’s official specs page: They are only fully compatible with iPhone models released in the past five years.
The software features of today, enabled by an H1 silicon chip built into the device, may be the liabilities of tomorrow.
