The AirPods Pro has been Apple’s most popular model in the AirPods lineup, but do you know that the AirPods Pro we know today was almost called the AirPods Extreme?
Yes, you heard that right, according to internal information obtained by MacRumors, several employees had considered renaming the higher-end AirPods model AirPods Extreme just a few months before the AirPods Pro joined the AirPods lineup in 2019.
If Apple were to name those in-ear headphones AirPods Extreme, then this would be the second time the company used the “Extreme” moniker in one of Apple’s products – the first being the AirPort Extreme, which was Apple’s higher-end wireless router and card for Macs from 2003 before Apple left the wireless router market.
Ultimately, I believe Apple made the right choice in keeping the current name (Pro) as it was originally planned. Take a look at other Apple products it offers. Apple first used the “Pro” moniker for its MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup in 2006. Then starting in 2015, Apple carried that suffix to the iPad line. Since the iPhone 11 series, which was introduced in September 2019, Apple started using “Pro” branding for its flagship iPhones to differentiate from the standard models in terms of features that Apple would later offer exclusively to the Pro models such as ProMotion, ProRAW, and ProRes.
So just a month later after the iPhone 11 models were introduced, it was a better choice for Apple to introduce the higher-end in-ear headphones as AirPods Pro to differentiate from the standard models with its ANC (Active Noise Cancellation). Moreover, in December 2020, Apple would later introduce another AirPods model called the AirPods Max, so the Pro would sit well below the Max model in terms of price points and feature set. We’ve also seen Apple adding more higher-end monikers that are positioned above the “Pro” branding such as the M-series Max/Ultra chips and Apple Watch Ultra.
The current generation of AirPods Pro was introduced in September 2022, and it’s the most advanced model Apple has offered with the H2 chip, Find My integration, and Adaptive Audio features. With the updated model with a USB-C case, users can enjoy listening to lossless audio with Vision Pro.
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