Apple AirPods With Cameras Slated to Launch in Late 2027

Apple’s first camera-equipped AirPods are now slated to launch in late 2027, per the detailed June 16 report on Apple’s 2027 wave from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The earbuds are part of a trio arriving in the same window as a second-generation foldable iPhone and a special iPhone marking the device’s 20th anniversary. The AirPods sit at the center of Apple’s most ambitious bet yet on AI hardware: tiny computer-vision sensors embedded in the earbud stems, designed to feed visual context to a revamped Siri rather than capture photos or video. Gurman, citing people familiar with the matter, said the project was originally on the books for this year and slipped in part because of Apple’s prolonged struggles with artificial intelligence software. The same software gap will be the limiting factor for nearly every other product on the 2027 slate, with each device pitched as a vehicle for the same Visual Intelligence stack that powers the new Siri.

The Late-2027 Trio Apple Has in the Pipeline

Gurman on Tuesday laid out Apple’s most ambitious product wave yet: camera-equipped AirPods, a second-generation foldable iPhone, and a 20th-anniversary iPhone, all scheduled to land in late 2027. The three devices have all reached advanced stages of development in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment.

Gurman’s June 16 announcement on his own feed framed the cluster as a high-water mark for Apple hardware. The post linked to the full report, calling the AirPods a flagship AI wearable and the iPhones the anniversary centerpiece.

NEW: Apple’s AirPods with cameras for AI are launching next year alongside the 20th anniversary pro iPhones and a second-generation foldable iPhone. It’s all part of Apple’s biggest new product period ever.

Gurman, who has covered Apple for more than a decade, posted the news from his own account on June 16 with a one-line summary that doubled as the announcement of a major product wave. The AirPods themselves are internally code-named B798. The 20th-anniversary iPhone carries two codes, V73 and V74, one for each of its two screen sizes. The timing of all three products remains fluid, Gurman warned, and could change.

What the Camera AirPods Will Actually Do

The new AirPods are designed to be Apple’s first AI-focused wearable product. Computer-vision sensors embedded in the stems will act as eyes for Siri, feeding the assistant a live read of the wearer’s surroundings so it can answer questions about objects and context. The pitch Gurman describes is that a user who glances at a fridge full of ingredients could simply ask Siri what to make for dinner. The hardware otherwise stays close to today’s AirPods Pro, with cameras added to the stems and small external indicator lights that fire whenever the earbuds are sending data to the cloud for processing.

Apple is testing the cameras against three user-facing use cases, all running on a new system it calls Visual Intelligence. That system will be shared with the iPhone Camera app and the revamped Siri that ships in iOS 27 later this year.

• Visual scene queries, such as “what can I make with these ingredients?”
• Contextual reminders surfaced from what the user is looking at
• Turn-by-turn walking directions informed by the camera feed

The Two iPhones Sharing the Stage

The two iPhones sharing the 2027 stage with the AirPods are each positioned to be a flagship moment. The 20th-anniversary model, code-named V73 and V74, will ship in two sizes similar to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max coming this fall, and will feature a nearly edge-to-edge display with curved glass that wraps around the sides of the device. Both that phone and the second-generation foldable, code-named V78, will run on a 2-nanometer A21 Naxos chip internally dubbed Naxos. Gurman said the new chip will succeed this year’s A20 Pro, code-named Borneo, which powers the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.

Apple is also using the 2027 lineup to formalize a foldable cadence. The company will ship its first foldable iPhone in September, then follow it a year later with V78, a schedule Gurman said signals Apple now treats foldables as a sustained annual franchise. The standard iPhone 18, by contrast, will be held until 2027, running on a base A20 chip known internally as Banda, and will go at least 18 months between updates.

Beyond 2027, the chip roadmap continues. The high-end 2028 iPhones will run on an A22 Pro processor on a 1.4-nanometer process, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as the primary manufacturer and Intel under consideration to handle some production. Here’s how the three confirmed 2027 iPhone models line up:

Why the AirPods Slipped From 2026 to 2027

The camera AirPods were not always a 2027 story. The project, code-named B798, was originally slated for release in 2026, and the hardware was already deep into engineering by spring. Gurman reported in early May that the earbuds had reached the design validation testing stage, with prototypes being put through their final internal checks.

What slipped, both then and now, is the software. Gurman wrote in the latest report that the deadline for B798 slipped in part because of Apple’s prolonged struggles with artificial intelligence software, and the company also had to develop visual AI models capable of identifying objects in a user’s surroundings. Apple previewed similar technology for the Vision Pro headset at its developer conference last week, but the company sees the AirPods as a more popular product and a higher-stakes bet on AI wearables. The May report also flagged a final escape hatch: the camera AirPods could still be delayed further if Apple is not satisfied with the AI experience. The 2026 target, in other words, was a placeholder for when the AI was ready.

The Wider 2027 Apple Play

The AirPods are one slice of a larger 2027 wearable push. Apple is also planning to ship its first smart glasses as early as the tail end of next year, a product code-named N50 and designed to rival offerings from Meta Platforms. Those glasses will carry more advanced cameras that can take photos and video, the opposite bet from the AirPods, and would slot into the same Visual Intelligence stack the earbuds rely on. The smart glasses and the camera AirPods together form Apple’s first dedicated wave of AI-native hardware.

The glasses may not arrive alone. Apple is also considering an AI-focused pendant with a camera that can be worn on clothes or as a necklace, which could pair with the glasses as part of a body-worn AI stack.

Software will travel with the hardware. Apple is now testing next fall’s devices against iOS 28 Bell, an iPhone software update slated for 2027, on top of the iOS 27 release the company introduced last week and which ships to consumers later this year with a new version of Siri. Visual Intelligence, the same feature the new AirPods will lean on, is already a focal point of the new Siri and iOS 27, integrated into the iPhone Camera app.

All of this lands in the first full year of a new CEO. Apple’s April 2026 CEO transition announcement names John Ternus, currently senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, as Cook’s successor effective September 1. Ternus inherits a hardware roadmap that, on paper, is the broadest Apple has attempted in years.

The Report Leaves Several Details Unconfirmed

Gurman’s report carries an unusually large number of caveats. The timing of all three 2027 products remains fluid, he wrote, and could change. Apple declined to comment, the spokesperson’s standard posture on rumors, and the report itself relies on people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.

The “AirPods Ultra” name, floated in earlier leaks, is not confirmed in this report. GSMArena flags it as a possible rebrand; Bloomberg’s own coverage stops at the B798 code name. Pricing, exact launch dates, and the precise feature set of the camera-enabled Visual Intelligence stack all remain undisclosed. For now, the report gives a launch window but not a price, and a code name but not a final feature list.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will Apple’s camera AirPods launch?

The camera AirPods are scheduled to launch in late 2027, alongside Apple’s second-generation foldable iPhone and a 20th-anniversary iPhone model, according to Gurman. The earbuds carry the B798 code name internally.

What do the cameras in the AirPods actually do?

The cameras are computer-vision sensors designed to feed a live read of the wearer’s surroundings into Siri. Apple is positioning them as context tools, not recording devices: they cannot take photos or video, and they surface contextual reminders and turn-by-turn walking directions rather than capturing footage.

Why did the camera AirPods slip from 2026 to 2027?

Gurman attributes the slip to Apple’s prolonged AI software struggles and the slow work of training visual AI models to recognize objects in the real world. The May 2026 report put the hardware in late-stage design validation testing, suggesting the bottleneck was always the software.

What other products is Apple launching in late 2027?

The same report points to a second-generation foldable iPhone (code-named V78) and a 20th-anniversary iPhone (code-named V73 and V74) shipping in the same window. Apple is also targeting late 2027 for its first smart glasses, code-named N50, designed to compete with Meta’s Ray-Ban frames. The glasses carry more advanced cameras capable of taking photos and video, the opposite design choice from the AirPods.

Will the camera AirPods be called AirPods Ultra?

The “AirPods Ultra” branding has appeared in earlier leaks, and GSMArena treats it as a possible but unconfirmed rebrand. Gurman’s most recent report uses only the B798 code name, and Apple has declined to attach a public marketing label to the earbuds.