AirPods Shipments Estimated to Double to 26-28 Million Units in 2018

As demand for AirPods continues to be stronger than expected, respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities has now revised his sales estimate for the next year saying the popular wireless earphones will ship double the units.

In 2017, Kuo estimates Apple will ship around 13-14 million units of AirPods thanks to strong demand. The company is still battling some supply issues with its wireless earbuds which it hopes to resolve in 2018 by moving the greater share of production to Luxshare.

Luxshare will be the new assembler for the AirPods in 2018 thanks to its improved assembly process and higher production capacity when compared to existing supplier Inventec.

We believe demand for AirPods has been strong, and note that the shipping time of the product on Apple’s official shopping website has shortened to 1-3 days, mainly thanks to an improved assembly process and increased capacity from Luxshare as the new assembler […] We expect AirPods to remain one of the most popular Apple accessories in 2018, with shipments likely to rise 100% YoY to 26-28mn units next year.

“The combination of music streaming on Apple Music and AirPods is truly a magical experience for people on the go,” he said”. “We’re thrilled with the momentum of these products. In fact, our entire wearables business was up 75 percent year over year in the fourth quarter, and in fiscal 2017, already generated the annual revenue of a Fortune 400 company.”

It’s unclear when a second-generation AirPods with Apple’s W2 chip might arrive. Apple is scheduled to release a version of the AirPods charging case with Qi wireless charging capability at some point in in 2018.

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