Airpods

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AirPods

Basic Information
Release Year	2016-12-13
Product Type	Wireless earbuds
In Production	Yes
Official Website	https://apple.com/airpods

AirPods are wireless earbuds designed by Apple. They first debuted on September 07, 2016, alongside the iPhone 7, and were released on December 13, 2016.

Consumer impact summary

AirPods are designed to be unrepairable even by Apple, leading to them ending up as e-waste after a few years of use. The replacement of the lithium-ion batteries used by the AirPods requires the destruction of the outer casing, adding to the waste problem. Up until September 22, 2023, Apple used their proprietary Lightning connector on the AirPods' charging case.

The lithium-ion batteries in AirPods can see significant degradation over time, with two-year-old sets lasting for less than half of the advertised five hours. Apple has a program to service batteries and purchase replacement individual AirPods and charging cases. The replacement of one or both AirPods or the charging case has a lower price with AppleCare+ than without. Apple offers battery servicing for free with AppleCare+ and for a fee without.

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of products part of the product line.

Touch on relevant topics like:

• User Freedom
• User Privacy
• Business Model
• Market Control

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Incidents

This is a list of all consumer protection incidents related to this product line. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Airpods category.

Replace the placeholder text in the sections below with the incidents that affect this product line and a short summary. Also replace the link so it point to the right company article.

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Example incident one (date)

Main article: link to the main article

Short summary of the incident (could be the same as the summary preceding the article).

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Example incident two (date)

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Incidents affecting all of the company's products can be found in the company article: Company article

Products

• AirPods (1st generation) (December 13, 2016)
• AirPods (2nd generation) (March 20, 2019)
• AirPods Pro (1st generation) (October 30, 2019)
• AirPods Max (December 15, 2020)
• AirPods (3rd generation) (October 26, 2021)
• AirPods Pro 2 (previously 2nd generation) (September 23, 2022)
• AirPods 4/ANC (September 20, 2024)

See also

Link to relevant theme articles or product lines with similar incidents.

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• Apple