According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, AirPods’ delay is technical and due to Apple working to ensure both ear pieces receive a signal simultaneously to reduce connection drops.
“Apple must ensure that both earpieces receive audio at the same time to avoid distortion,” a person familiar with their development told the Journal. The same person said Apple is working to “resolve what happens when a user loses one of the earpieces or the battery dies.”
Reports are now saying January 2017. Yowsers.
Haven’t seen a complete Apple screw-up like this in a long while. They should’ve left the headphone jack alone this iteration and gotten it all right with an OLED screen for the iPhone 8 in my opinion.
Source: Apple AirPods delay caused by audio sync issue: Report | ZDNet