It’s always a good idea to approach leaks with a critical eye, but the latest AirPods 3 release launch date rumor is hard to believe.
As reported by AppleTrack and originally tipped by YouTuber Luke Miani, the AirPods 3 will supposedly be announced — if not launched outright on May 18, just a couple of days from now.
Heres why we‘re skeptical. AppleTrack is more of an aggregator of leaks than a leaks source itself, but Miani has no track record of providing insider information — much less information that turns out to be accurate later.
Second, a mid-May launch would contradict pretty much everything else we’ve heard about the AirPods 3 launch window, which consensus has largely built for being in the second half of 2021. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, for whom AppleTrack has a 75% leak accuracy rating, has suggested that the AirPods 3 hasn’t even entered mass production yet.
We do believe the AirPods 3 launch is getting pretty close, as the apparent design has leaked repeatedly. And, although it would seemingly make more sense for Apple to announce its next big headphones release at an event, like WWDC 2021, both the AirPods 2 and AirPods 3 had much humbler launches via press release.
Miani apparently told AppleTracks that this will be how Apple reveals the AirPods 3 as well, alongside the launch of a new Apple Music Hi-Fi service. It will presumably offer lossless hi-res music for the same $9..9 per month.
That’s believable enough — a double-header of audio releases makes a lot of sense — but that May 18 date just seems a little too soon, given what we’ve heard from more established sources.
Speaking of which, regular Apple leaker Jon Prosser — whose own record isn’t spotless, but is more often accurate than not — has already indicated a major new iMac embargo will drop on May 18, so Apple may not want to divert attention away with a separate AirPods 3 announcement. It would already be competing with Google I/O 2021, which also starts on — yep — May 18. Then again, Apple has shown that it could care less what the competition is doing.
