The latest report is based on sources from within the supply chain indicating that Apple may need to push the release of the new headphones into the second half of the year or even to 2021 (via PhoneArena).
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Just this week, we had additional confirmation that new AirPods were set to arrive next month, which further clouds this mystery. Some of the confusion could be caused by multiple new AirPods on the way, both these AirPods Pro Lite along with a revision of the standard AirPods – or the AirPods Gen 3. It’s unclear what distinction will exist between these two save for the design, as most have suggested that the AirPods Pro Lite will drop the noise cancellation and transparency features of the AirPods Pro in order to bring the price down. This also calls into question where the AirPods Pro Lite could fall in terms of pricing. Currently, the standard AirPods are either $159 or $199 depending on whether you want the wireless charging case, and the AirPods Pro sit at $249. Clearly there isn’t much room to fit the AirPods Pro Lite between the two. It’s possible that we will see the standard AirPods, which are frequently on sale, get an official price drop of $20 to $30 to clear out space for the AirPods Pro Lite. We were hoping to finally have the answer to all of these questions next month, but it appears we might be in for a much longer wait.