Sometimes with Apple, what’s old becomes new again. Designs and product names are at times revisited as the inspiration for new products. AirPods and HomePods, for example, play off the strong brand awareness for the iPod.
According to a filed patent, Apple may take things a step further with the iPod inspiration, creating an AirPods case that looks and works a lot like a modern iPod nano.
Patent shows Apple’s big ambitions for AirPods cases
Ever since debuting the first AirPods in 2016, Apple has regularly made minor updates and improvements to the various cases that hold its wireless earbuds. Later iterations added support for wireless charging, a built-in speaker, USB-C, Find My tracking, and more.
Back in September 2022 Apple first filed a patent that describes an AirPods case with a built-in touch display. According to the patent’s own examples, this display could be used for:
- controlling audio playback
- activating and interacting with Siri
- receiving and responding to iMessages
- checking the weather forecast
- listening to audiobooks
- and more
Today that original patent has been updated, indicating that Apple is still very interested in moving toward building a more powerful, versatile case for AirPods in the future.
A modern iPod nano
As the examples above demonstrate, Apple is essentially moving toward turning the AirPods case into a modern version of the iPod nano. The sixth-generation nano looked a lot like the drawings Apple’s patent displays.
Equipping a charging case with its own display may sound a bit extreme, but perhaps Apple intends to keep taking the AirPods further upmarket. AirPods Ultra, anyone?
9to5Mac’s Take
Apple files patents for a lot of ideas that never come to fruition, so it’s possible we’ll never see a display-equipped AirPods case. But it could be an interesting way to build a more premium version of the earbuds, and Apple providing an update to the patent today is a good sign this idea still has some life in it.
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