It’s been four years since Apple’s AirPods Max was released, and there’s still no sign of subsequent new products.

Four years ago today, Apple released AirPods Max, marking the company's first entry into the high-end over-ear headphone market under its own brand. Rumors that Apple was working on a pair of high-end headphones were ramping up throughout 2020, with the headphones thought to be called "AirPods Studio." They were suddenly announced via a somewhat unexpected press release on December 8, 2020, and went on sale that same day. A week later, on Tuesday, December 15, orders began arriving to customers.

AirPods Max offer many of the popular features of AirPods, such as the H1 chip, easy pairing, active noise cancellation, transparency mode, automatic switching and spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, but for the first time in a premium over-ear design. They also offer a headband made of flexible mesh, replaceable magnetic earcups, a Digital Crown for physical volume control, a button for switching between ANC and Transparency, and a SmartCase for storing and putting the headphones into a low-power state.

AirPods Max was immediately popular after its launch, and the expected delivery time was once extended by several months. The initial market response to AirPods Max was very good, and it was generally believed that this headset was "enough to compete with other high-end headphones." While the MSRP is still $549 today, AirPods Max are regularly discounted by more than $100.

The AirPods Max have also been criticized since their launch, including their somewhat pinched fit, a significantly higher price than competing high-end over-ear headphones, smart case design, condensation inside the earcups, poor battery life (an issue that was later fixed with a software update), and ANC strength that seemed to degrade over time.

Earlier this year, Apple updated the color options of AirPods Max and replaced the Lightning port with USB-C, but there were no other changes to the body. Since the changes are minor, Apple doesn't seem to consider the "new" models to be second-generation products. There are currently no rumors about an actual second-generation AirPods Max model, so it's possible that the current version will remain on the market for a while, despite its apparent age.