If you’re just starting your holiday shopping now and have Apple’s AirPods on your list, you’re about to be disappointed.
According to MacRumors and 9to5Mac, Apple’s Siri-enabled Bluetooth earbuds are out of stock at most of Apple’s online and retail stores around the world, with even major big box retailers like Best Buy also being sold out of the headphones. That said, at the time of publishing this story, Best Buy still has a few AirPods in stock online and so does Apple’s online store, though shipping dates are listed as early January.
As always, there are other wireless earbuds on the market, including the new version of Samsung’s Gear IconX earbuds (we’ll have a review soon) and even Google’s lacklustre Pixel Buds — though both headphones lack the ability to instantly connect to Apple’s line of smartphones because they lack the AirPods’ innovative W1 Chip. It’s worth noting that this tech has since been featured in a number of Beats headphones, including the the Solo 3 headphones.
Apple experienced similar AirPods supply shortages leading into the holiday season last year, though this year it’s believed the issue is due to supply problems and not technical hurdles.
While Apple’s AirPods were the butt of many jokes when they were first revealed, they’ve proven to be solid, surprisingly popular wireless earbuds. For the last few weeks, I’ve been counting the number of pairs of AirPods I see when walking to the MobileSyrup office every morning. Each day, I encounter at least five to eight people using Apple’s still somewhat strange-looking wireless earbuds.
For more information on Apple’s AirPods, check out the comprehensive review I put together last year.
