Sources: Apple is trimming planned production of AirPods by 25% to 30%, now expecting to make 75M-85M in 2021, compared with previous forecast of 110M
Wireless earphones face heated competition from Samsung, Xiaomi and others — TAIPEI — Apple is trimming its planned production …
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s AirPods planning was already under pressure: a 2020 market forecast anticipated falling true-wireless share even as unit sales grew, while a March analyst forecast put 2021 AirPods shipments below 2020 amid intensifying competition. The revised plan brings Apple’s internal production outlook closer to that lower 2021 shipment forecast.
The change also follows Apple’s broader iPhone order reductions earlier in March, making the AirPods revision part of a wider reset of Apple’s 2021 device-order expectations rather than an isolated product launch adjustment.
First-order effects
- Apple lowers its 2021 AirPods build plan to 75M–85M units from 110M, reducing the volume it expects its AirPods production chain to support.
- Samsung, Xiaomi and other wireless-earphone rivals are competing against a smaller Apple production target than Apple had previously planned.
Second-order effects
- The revision narrows the gap between Apple’s plan and the 82M-pair AirPods sales forecast published in 2020, indicating that production planning is being reset around a more contested true-wireless market.
- Apple’s concurrent iPhone and AirPods order cuts put greater weight on accurate demand forecasting across its consumer-device portfolio, rather than volume assumptions made late in 2020.
Third-order effects
- If repeated across product lines, Apple’s order adjustments point to a hardware market in which category leaders manage inventory and supply commitments more conservatively as rivals erode share.
- True-wireless earphones are shifting from an Apple-led growth category toward a more competitive market, where Samsung and Xiaomi can pressure Apple’s volume expectations as well as its market position.
The trend: Consumer-device makers are recalibrating production plans as competition makes earlier category-growth assumptions harder to sustain.