MacRumors spotted Amazon dropping the base AirPods 4 to $99 this weekend, down from $129. The AirPods Max 2 are also on sale for $509 in Blue and Starlight, matching their all-time low. Both deals are solid if you’re buying right now, but they also highlight just how aggressive Apple got with launch pricing.
The AirPods 4 without ANC debuted at $129, which positioned them weirdly close to the $179 ANC model. At $99, they finally make sense as the entry-level option—especially when you consider the AirPods 3 launched at $179 and are still floating around $150 on sale. Apple carved out two SKUs from what used to be one product, charged more for both, and called it segmentation. The market’s been correcting that ever since.
The Max 2 situation is different but equally telling. At $549, they’re $20 cheaper than the original Max launched for, but they’re also five years newer with meaningfully better features like USB-C and improved ANC. Apple learned that $549 was the ceiling, not the floor. The fact that these hit $509 within months of launch suggests even Apple knows the pricing is tight. Bose and Sony are both undercutting them with comparable over-ears, and the Max 2 don’t have the runaway feature advantage the original Max briefly enjoyed.
If you’re in the market, these are the prices to jump on. The AirPods 4 at $99 are a reasonable proposition for basic earbuds with Apple’s ecosystem lock-in, and the Max 2 at $509 are genuinely excellent headphones if you’re already neck-deep in Apple hardware. Just know that the “sale” prices are really just Apple’s launch prices meeting reality a little faster than usual.
Reporting reference: MacRumors ↗