Cole Kinnard has been pining for Apple Inc.'s wireless AirPod headphones since September, but the college sophomore recently scratched them off his Christmas list.

Three months after trumpeting the AirPods as a breakthrough technology, Apple still hasn't made them available. It says it needs time before they're ready for consumers.

"I'm truly disappointed," said Mr. Kinnard, of St. Charles, Mo. He recently told his parents he wanted wireless headphones from Germany's Bragi GmbH instead.

AirPods have become a rare public misstep for Apple. In September, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller hailed the earbuds as the entree to a wireless future, with seamless connection to an iPhone and a five-hour battery life.

At the September event, Mr. Schiller said the $159 headphones would begin shipping in October. Late that month, Apple said shipment was delayed. It hasn't provided an update on when the devices might be available or given a reason for the wait.

"We don't believe in shipping a product before it's ready," an Apple spokeswoman said. "We need a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers."

By allowing users to listen to music or phone calls wirelessly, AirPods aimed to compensate for the removal of the traditional headphone jack from the iPhone 7. In an early test, Wall Street Journal personal technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler said the AirPods worked well.

Analysts say they believe the AirPod delay hasn't affected sales of the iPhone 7, also introduced in September. Barclays in November said that production is expected to start this month, but Apple only plans to make 10 to 15 million units initially. By comparison, Apple shipped nearly 75 million phones in the final three months of 2015.

Still, the delay has damaged Apple's credibility and stoked frustration among consumers who can't charge their iPhone 7 while listening to music or conducting a call, says Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

"It is an absolute black eye that they missed the holidays," Mr. Moorhead said.

The AirPod delay marks the first time Apple has postponed release of a product since its white iPhone 4 in 2010, Mr. Moorhead said. Then, Apple cited manufacturing challenges.

In the case of AirPods, the cause remains unclear. The earbuds contain a new chip that Apple developed. But the same chip is included in two models of headphones, which are available for sale, from Apple's Beats unit.

A person familiar with the development of the AirPod said the trouble appears to stem from Apple's effort to chart a new path for wireless headphones. In most other wireless headphones, only one earpiece receives a signal from the phone via wireless Bluetooth technology; it then transmits the signal to the other earpiece.

Apple has said AirPod earpieces each receive independent signals from an iPhone, Mac or other Apple device. But Apple must ensure that both earpieces receive audio at the same time to avoid distortion, the person familiar with their development said. That person said Apple also must resolve what happens when a user loses one of the earpieces or the battery dies.

Another challenge: AirPod's microphone has to be able to pick up a user's voice while excluding background noise, said Kiril Trajkovski, co-founder of Earin, a wireless headphone competitor.

Other wireless headphones work well indoors, where a Bluetooth signal can be contained, but struggle to deliver similar sound performance outdoors, where signals can't bounce off nearby objects, said Nick Hunn, a Bluetooth expert and chief technologist with U.K.-based WiFore Wireless Consulting.

Apple's problem "has to be something fairly major because they've missed the Christmas market with what had the potential to be a really sexy product," Mr. Hunn said. "It's something that's blindsided them."

Apple's announcement, and the subsequent delay, has helped other makers of wireless headphones by drawing attention to the new technology.

Bragi has shipped more than 100,000 units of its Dash wireless-headphone product since February and many of those sales have come since the AirPod announcement, said Nikolaj Hviid, Bragi's chief executive. Earin says it doubled sales in the September through November period from the three months prior. Other competitors include Samsung Electronics Co.'s IconX, Motorola's VerveOnes and Jabra Elite Sport.

Neil Cybart, an independent analyst who runs the Above Avalon site, said Apple should wait until next year to release the product rather than risk shortages before Christmas. He believes that Apple identified an issue with the connection between the earbuds and devices, after providing initial versions of AirPods to technology critics for review.

"If you're wearing these things and they're losing connection, that's a problem," Mr. Cybart said. "You won't find too many people faulting them for making sure it's correct."

Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 09, 2016 11:35 ET (16:35 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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