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nrvna76

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 4, 2010
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The discussion of the HomePod being discontinued is being compared to the AirPods Max. For those that have or intend to purchase, does this concern you for the future support of AirPods Max?
 
No. If Apple discontinued the Max’s today, would it shorten their lifecycle? Of course not. My pair is perfectly serviceable as is.

And it’s really not likely that the Max’s will be discontinued for years.
 
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The HomePod requires airplay to function, which is why I would not buy one. If Apple decides to deprecate it the long term use of it may suffer. Unlike the HomePod, the AirPods use industry standard Bluetooth. If Apple disappeared tomorrow they’d work as well as any set of Bluetooth headphones and I suspect that since the batteries are screwed in and easily removable, you’ll be able to get replacement batteries for years just like iPod owners can.
 
The HomePod requires airplay to function, which is why I would not buy one. If Apple decides to deprecate it the long term use of it may suffer. Unlike the HomePod, the AirPods use industry standard Bluetooth. If Apple disappeared tomorrow they’d work as well as any set of Bluetooth headphones and I suspect that since the batteries are screwed in and easily removable, you’ll be able to get replacement batteries for years just like iPod owners can.

This.. If Apple decides to "move on" to a next generation standard ("Airplay 2"); and without the option for open Bluetooth, I fear HomePod owners will be left high and dry.
 
Yes it does.
With the discontinuation of the Homepod, I will not be buying this product.
"Fool me once..." kind of reaction.
In fact, I will avoid buying Apples' niche products.
I'm sure they'll support their orphans for a few years.
But it seems that the product eventually becomes unuseable despite "updates".
My discontinued Airport extreme devices barely respond to airplay, so I have had to bin them.
 
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Yes it does.
With the discontinuation of the Homepod, I will not be buying this product.
"Fool me once..." kind of reaction.
In fact, I will avoid buying Apples' niche products.
I'm sure they'll support their orphans for a few years.
But it seems that the product eventually becomes unuseable despite "updates".
My discontinued Airport extreme devices barely respond to airplay, so I have had to bin them.

How, exactly, is a set of bluetooth headphones, that use industry standard protocols and codecs, a niche product? All Airpods are capable of working just as well as any other set of bluetooth headphones with non Apple products.
 
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What does the HomePod have to do with the Max.
It has services and tech in common (Apple Music, Airplay) and in terms of retail price they are both in the upper middle end of the speaker/headphone market. When some people buy a product, particularly in a closed ecosystem like Apple‘s, it worth hazarding a guess whether they have long term value. The max price is annoying because a lot of the associated costs involved keep edging the price northwards: Charging plug, reasonable protective case, phono lead, AppleCare... a lot of other manufacturers headphones include these things.
 
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My worry of the HomePod is very limited there has been AirTunes (the original version of this AirPlay tech since 2004!) - I really don’t see something so core and old as that going away.
 
It wouldn’t stop me from buying them. I do think there are a lot of parallels between the HomePod and AirPods Max that may ultimately play out the same, but as others have said, they will continue to work. You will get your value out of the AirPods Max long before they stop working. I mean there are people still using the iPod HiFi!
 
I dont buy headphones like these expecting to still be using them ten years from now. I also don’t expect them to retain their value in five years.

I bought them because I am using them a lot right now and loving them.

But given that they can be connected to audio with a wire and they can be connected with standard Bluetooth, then I don’t see a reason to complain about longevity. They are also probably selling decent so that helps.
 
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