San Francisco, May 25 (IANS): Tech giant Apple's upcoming AirPods Pro are likely to enter mass production during the second half of the year.

In a new thread on Twitter, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo explained that he expects AirPods Pro 2 mass production will begin during the second half of this year.

He also noted that AirPods Pro 2 will be manufactured in Vietnam, signaling a reduction in Apple's reliance on China.

This comes after the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Apple has informed some of its suppliers that it wants to shift production from China to hubs in Vietnam and India.

Kuo said that Apple's decision to shift production from China to Vietnam for AirPods Pro 2 can be attributed to the product's "relatively not complicated supply chain and Vietnam's better production environment".

Currently, AirPods Pro are manufactured and assembled in both China and Vietnam, but Kuo seemed to believe the shift to Vietnam will continue at a higher rate with AirPods Pro 2 this year.

Apple is still expected to test and perfect AirPods Pro 2 manufacturing in China during the "New Product Introduction" phase of the process.

In terms of features and changes to expect, Kuo predicted that the AirPods Pro 2 charging case will still feature a Lightning port for charging, dashing hopes for a switchover to USB-C this year.