Airpods

❗Article Status Notice: This Article is a stub

---

This article is underdeveloped, and needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Learn more ▼

Issues may include:

• This article needs to be expanded to provide meaningful information
• This article requires additional verifiable evidence to demonstrate systemic impact
• More documentation is needed to establish how this reflects broader consumer protection concerns
• The connection between individual incidents and company-wide practices needs to be better established
• The article is simply too short, and lacks sufficient content

How you can help:

• Add documented examples with verifiable sources
• Provide evidence of similar incidents affecting other consumers
• Include relevant company policies or communications that demonstrate systemic practices
• Link to credible reporting that covers these issues
• Flesh out the article with relevant information

This notice will be removed once the article is sufficiently developed. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the Discord (join here) and post to the #appeals channel, or mention its status on the article's talk page.

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. However, this is just a replacement service, as AirPods cannot be repaired without destroying their outer case, resulting in a 0/10 repairability score.

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

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

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.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

Example incident one (date)

Main article: link to the main articleShort summary of the incident (could be the same as the summary preceding the article).

Example incident two (date)

...

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.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

• Apple