Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

https://www.kevinrooke.com/post/apple-airpods-iphone-accessory-or-the-next-big-thing

by 123six • 7 years ago

699 661 7 years ago

kevinrooke.com

LegitShady• 7 years ago

That's because they're overpriced heavily marketed Bluetooth earbuds pushed by the biggest brand.

I bet almost any of apples products could be similarly compared.

patejam• 7 years ago

Are they over priced? They're cheaper than Sennheiser or Bose at $159. They have a value-prop of having their own, better, wireless protocol that works flawlessly with iOS. And people seem to like the form factor.

etaioinshrdlu• 7 years ago

They also seem to have better performance specs and software quality than anything else on the market. In addition to a design that people actually like.

sadmann1• 7 years ago

Are airpods really worth it or is it just marketing

umanwizard2• 7 years ago

They are worth it for me, but it depends on what you want in a headphone, and your mileage may vary.

Operyl• 7 years ago

I have really enjoyed using my pairs (had a 1st gen, bought the 2nd gen later on for the much quicker connections). They work absolutely amazingly with my iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro. The switchover is mostly glitch free, and I can pair them to "standard bluetooth devices" pretty easily (like my complex's gym equipment). I think the investment has been pretty great, but you have to own products that make sense with them (at least an iPhone, iPad, or Macbook).

warp• 7 years ago

Adjusting the volume is very convenient if you're wearing an Apple Watch.

(so I agree, they're great IF you're already using at least the iPhone).

joshmn• 7 years ago

I hated them until I tried them. Their integration within Apple's ecosystem is killer.

Fnoord22• 7 years ago

Are they worth it if your setup is a MBP plus an Android smartphone?

gav• 7 years ago

Same. I think it's interesting because out of all the Apple products that I own, Airpods are the first that I saw and didn't want. I hated how they looked.

I had a coworker who used them for calls and he talked me into buying them. Once I started using them I realized how much I enjoyed using them over wired headphones and how well they worked compared to other Bluetooth devices, especially older headsets.

The only negative for me is that the Pro model didn't exist when I bought my Airpods, and the regular model has poor sound isolation--fine if you are at home, in a office, etc., but terrible on the street or on a plane.

sevencolors• 7 years ago

The killer feature is the connection awareness. You put them in your ears and it immediately connects. You take them out and it pauses the audio. I’ve had several wireless earbuds and they all suffer from connection frustrations and letting audio continue playing when not used.

crooked-v3• 7 years ago

You take them out and it pauses the audio.

Even better, if you put that earbud back in it then continues playing in both ears - which makes it a perfect intuitive enhancement of the physical actions you'd already take to talk to somebody while you have earbuds in.

quxbar• 7 years ago

This. Even the latest high-end sony offerings can't quickly switch between devices - you have to manually re-pair them each time you want to switch devices.

nmfisher• 7 years ago

I hear people say this everywhere, but I still find myself needing to manually pair my iPhone with my AirPods around 50% of the time whenever someone calls me.

The battery life is also rubbish, they regularly fall out of my ears and they don't work with my (non-Apple) MP3 player.

Giving credit where it's due, though, the microphone quality for phone calls is exceptional given the orientation and how far away they sit from your mouth.

Otherwise, I really don't get understand why these things are so popular (which just shows how little I know about consumer goods and marketing). Mine were gifted to me, but mostly go unused for the reasons above. I probably wouldn't complain if they were $50 a set, but I'd never dip into my own pocket for whatever obscene amount they cost now ($200?).

gdulli• 7 years ago

A few weeks ago my company got us the Pros as a Christmas gift. It's my first experience with Bluetooth.

These hurt my right ear slightly. The audio sometimes stutters. Sometimes the battery drains in one very quickly but not the other, or there's some other bug causing the audio to go out in one ear. Putting them in and taking them out of the case is awkward. Keeping them charged is a responsibility.

The $8 wired earbuds I had before never had any of these problems. And I was never worried about losing them. I saw them being wired as a pro, not a con. I'm going back to those. I can't believe anyone pays $250 for these. I couldn't believe paying $50.

themagician3• 7 years ago

I'm still surprised that it took so long to get wireless earbuds that didn't suck. I guess battery/power technology was just never in a place to make them feasible, but it still feels like it took a really long time. I remember when the Jawbones first hit the market thinking like, really? Is this the best we can do? Those things were huge.

Then we get airpods and I'm sort of stunned how small they actually are. I just wish the battery was more easily replaceable.

seibelj• 7 years ago

Creating a successful hardware product, especially one that becomes a fashion symbol, is sooo much harder than creating software. Orders of magnitude harder. They are now taking the profits from their success.

rooam-dev2• 7 years ago

Apple Ecosystem, Apple's way - create a problem and a solution at the same.

I wonder what's the ratio among the owners, who bought vs. who received them as a gift.

umanwizard2• 7 years ago

create a problem and a solution at the same

"Wires are annoying" and "other Bluetooth headphones suck" were not problems created by Apple.

rooam-dev2• 7 years ago

They removed the wired option which created a problem for some and offered a solution. Yes, I know about the dongle, already lost 2 of them.

mikece• 7 years ago

What intrigues me more than the features of the AirPods -- especially the new AirPods Pro -- is that these little things have the potential to be a platform to themselves: https://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2019/11/19/airpods-are-bec...

mantecademani• 7 years ago

This dynamic could be extended so that a simple tap of an AirPod or a quick voice command can take us to a different location via sound. Utilizing HomePods as sound receivers, an AirPods wearer would be able to “move” from the kitchen to family room.

That idea of transporting yourself to another location through the use of sound is absolutely fascinating. I think developers should and will start to consider how sound enhances existing experiences, and how new experiences can come from looking at audio output and input as tools to be used to reach the user.

Sound has kind of been neglected in more recent times in technology, with apps and operating systems making fewer sounds then they did in the past, since sounds are often intrusive to whatever other thing the user is listening to. But sound has the potential to communicate completely different ideas and experiences to users and that idea in the article to me is one prime example of that sort of interaction that only works through sound.

reaperducer6• 7 years ago

I seem to remember that Microsoft released an app for the iPhone that is a map service, but it works on sound only because it's designed for blind people.

typon2• 7 years ago

Wish there was a way for public investors to invest in certain parts of a publicly traded company. If I believe in a certain project at Apple or Google, I want to fund it and get returns on my investment.

Waterluvian2• 7 years ago

Isn't that cart before the horse? The concept of investing is taking a risk. If you want to invest in only successful products after they're developed, there's no wealth delta to be a part of.

jimmyspice• 7 years ago

I think they're getting at a model either like Kickstarter, or directly funding a department ( say Google's AR department, if you liked their Glass idea ). The problem with a normal investment and no seats on the board is that you don't really have a say on direction provided that a company does more than one thing. there's also the fact that money is fungible and would probably just subsidise loss making departments as is common today

typon2• 7 years ago

I would want to invest in projects that I think will take off. For example, if I had to invest in Tesla, I would not invest in the Cybertruck. In fact, that project turns me off investing in Tesla entirely. But say, the Model Y, on the other hand is something I think will be successful so I would bet on it

capableweb3• 7 years ago

The government should work like that with taxes. Instead of just giving 100% to whatever the government decides it wants to fund, 20% could be reserved to go to what people want it to go to. Have some participation in the tax paying.

More interesting and better for the world if we apply that to governments rather than companies :)

reaperducer6• 7 years ago

Instead of just giving 100% to whatever the government decides it wants to fund, 20% could be reserved to go to what people want it to go to.

Under that plan, the best funded parts of the government would be the ones that benefit rich people only.

Then again, considering the intelligence and temperament of the average person, I think in short order we'd have amazing playgrounds and free hot dog stands everywhere, all under the flag of the hammer and sickle.

thekyle• 7 years ago

That's called participatory budgeting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_budgeting

mc33• 7 years ago

The problem is you now have investors voting on what the company should do. You buy Apple shares because you trust them to envision the future. I bet most punters would have put money on the next iPhone and nothing else. And also there is the issue of most money coming from index funds just chucking money at everything regardless.

gmaster1440• 7 years ago

Impressive figures no doubt, but in my opinion flawed to consider Airpods as a standalone business and compare to other businesses. It's so successful specifically because Apple built bespoke chips, software, and integration across their ecosystem for the Airpods. This is something a brand new company building just the Airpods product would never be able to accomplish.

psv1• 7 years ago

And even if they accomplished it, they wouldn't come even remotely close to being as financially successful with the same product.

123six3• 7 years ago

Yup, good point. It's not possible to extract AirPods from Apple and still have them be as successful. But it's illuminating to isolate the business against a backdrop of other top tech companies. It's kind of like Apple spawned Silicon Valley's hottest new tech company in 2016.

ganstyles• 7 years ago

I am on my third "generation" (Airpods, AP wireless, Airpods Pro) of Airpods and have never been otherwise in the Apple ecosystem. I use Android. I think there are probably some advantages like quick pairing and being able to see battery level quickly, but so far haven't specifically needed this information. Really love the Airpods, previous had several pairs of in ear earbuds like the Google Pixel Buds, Beats, and over ear stuff like the Bose QC35. The Airpods were nearly perfect, even without an iPhone, and the Airpods Pro have made me totally replace even my Bose over the ears.

I think it's an amazing product even without the integration and software and integration.

szemy2• 7 years ago

Even for Android you can simply download an app that gives very similar features.

justinzollars• 7 years ago

Dear god. That's impressive.

jackhalford• 7 years ago

I have a pair of Airpods. What bugs me most is that le lithium battery is not replaceable, and will degrade after a couple years. which makes these a high-end throwaway device...

cycrutchfield• 7 years ago

As opposed to the phone itself?

inetknght• 7 years ago

Once upon a day, phones had replaceable batteries. I'm still holding on to my ancient phone specifically because of that.

satya71• 7 years ago

The phone battery is hard to replace, not impossible.

skyyler3• 7 years ago

That doesn't differ from their other offerings...

Their laptops and phones do not have replaceable batteries, why would their headphones?

wiredfool3• 7 years ago

The batteries in the other items are replaceable, it’s just not easy. In my understanding, the AirPods batteries simply aren’t replaceable at all.

sosborn• 7 years ago

Those batteries are replaceable, just not by you (officially anyway).

fermenflo• 7 years ago

Except their laptops and phones totally do...

What are you talking about?

mintocean• 7 years ago

That’s false. I’ve had the battery in my Apple laptops and phones replaced many times. They even monitor its health and tell you when to replace it.

mbesto• 7 years ago

Their laptops and phones do not have replaceable batteries, why would their headphones?

That's like comparing a car to wheels. Laptops/phones have infinitely more use cases to them. Headphones are accessories.

eanzenberg3• 7 years ago

Or, you can pay to replace the battery. I've done it with an old iPhone6 and got back a pretty usable device.

fredifrum• 7 years ago

battery replacements aren't a thing for AirPods. You can send them to Apple to be recycled, though.

barkingcat2• 7 years ago

almost everything apple makes has that feature ... degrades in a few years, throw away, buy another.

ipads, iphones, even some modern mac laptops that have the disks soldered and batteries glued, etc.

mrtksn• 7 years ago

Apple products have really long life span compared to the alternatives, actually. That's why their products have very good re-sell value. Nothing degrades, you pass your iProduct down the line in the family to the less tech-savvy members. My father is using my iPhone 5 now and works great after the battery replacement. People still user their iPods, iPad 2's and so on.

Airpods are an exception to the rule here.

I wonder where this narrative comes from, can you please explain why do you think that Apple products degrade rapidly and are thrown away?

antimatter• 7 years ago

Here's some of the Apple gear from my family.

Macbook Pro from 2008: Still boots iPhone 4 (2010): Still functioning (although obviously does not run latest OS) iPhone 5s (2013): Still functioning (running iOS 12 just fine) iPhone 7: (2016): Still flawless

themagician3• 7 years ago

Same. After 2 years I had to buy a second pair.

Apple apparently DOES offer battery service for these, but it's $49 PER AirPod. If it was $49 for both I might be up for it.

Apple's battery service across the board is just too damn expensive. I get that it's the labor costs involved, but I wish they would put more thought into this.

I have three older iPads, a few older iPhones and a MacBook Air that are perfectly usable minus the batteries. but it would costs hundreds of dollars to replace them all so they just end up sitting in a bin because I don't have the heart to toss them.

londons_explore3• 7 years ago

Do they actually change the batteries in them, or do they just give you new airpods?

I can't imagine the genius bar has tweezers and microscopes for battery replacements in-store...

privateSFacct• 7 years ago

And what apple is betting on is that people will prefer their totally sealed, light as possible, "throwaway" $200 product over the competitions user service, replaceable battery option.

It is the same bet they have made repeatedly with their phones. Smaller sim card (obsoleting old approaches) - removing headphone jack, switching to lighting, doing totally sealed (but durable) devices etc.

It's generally paid off - oddly people seem to prefer used apple products (ie, beleive in their durability) over used logitech headphones or android phones - so the actual life of apple products ends up being pretty long.

Apple's battery service fee is $49 for airpods and useful life is perhaps around 3 years, if you keep wanting to replace the batteries every three years. My quick sense is that most folks may retire their airpods after the second battery (6 years in) at the longer end.

So far their approach has paid of tremendously for them.

I am curious what other headphone providers are doing here. Ie, how easy is it to get a fresh set of batteries after 3 years that are of high quality and replace them. I've gotten burned replacing batteries in products with amazon replacements and the mfg sometimes doesn't even stock or sell new batteries for their devices so I've gone with Apple for now - if you go into their store for a new battery I've never had a problem with quality.

jeffnappi• 7 years ago

Calling it battery service is interesting - they are most definitely simply replacing the AirPod. The $49 battery fee is for a single AirPod - replacement for the pair is $99.

The question I have is if they are able to meaningfully recycle the used AirPods or if they just end up in the landfill?

ReverseCold• 7 years ago

Smaller sim card (obsoleting old approaches)

I've always just cut the old ones to fit and it's worked fine.

neighbour• 7 years ago

My AirPods, specifically the left one, cuts out after 5-10 minutes every time. Having purchased my AirPods mid-2017, I was pretty disappointed when I went to the Apple store and they said there was nothing they could do about it and I would have to buy a new pair.

Needless to say, I said no thanks. I'm about ready to throw these away and I'll probably buy a pair of Sony headphones this time.

brailsafe• 7 years ago

There is an interesting comparison to be made between most of the crap we use today that isn't serviceable and is proprietary. My favourite devices growing up were Gameboys, and an iPod nano which wasn't serviceable realistically. I have all of my Gameboys up to SP in a box, I can pop standardized batteries into them and play them with at least as good performance as 20 years ago. The Nano malfunctioned after about 4 or 5 years and despite it being the first thing I spent more than $100 of my own money on, stopped being useful. By contrast, here's the ifixit guide for replacing the lithium ion battery in a DS Lite.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+DS+Lite+Battery+Replac...

and here's the battery that you can order for $15 on Nintendo's official store. https://store.nintendo.com/battery-pack-nintendo-ds-lite.htm...

paxys4• 7 years ago

As always, none of the numbers are official, so take all of them with a huge grain of salt. The article also doesn't link to a single source, not even an unofficial one.

Assuming an even split of sales between Gen 1, Gen 2, and AirPods Pro, Airpods revenue was $12 billion in 2019

This itself is a terrible assumption. AirPods Pro launched in November 2019, so had just 2 months of sales. Even otherwise, there is never an even split between the lower and higher priced versions of any product, especially when the higher one costs nearly double.

Another source (https://hypebeast.com/2019/12/apple-airpods-stats-third-larg...) estimates the sales at $6 billion, half of what the parent article says.

123six3• 7 years ago

Correct, these are all estimates. And the sales split is unclear, but both Airpods 2 and Airpods Pro have the benefit of launching before the holidays. They got a disproportionate number of sales from those 2 months. Even if everyone went with the $150 version (which is impossible), Airpods revenue would still be $9 billion at 60 million units. The point still stands though, Apple is making a killing off Airpods. Whether the exact number is $9 billion or $15 billion isn't as important.

paxys4• 7 years ago

I am of course not debating that AirPods are successful. However,

- If one random sales estimate is $6 billion and the other is $12 billion, it is clear that there isn't enough information out there, or something else is amiss. This isn't just a margin of error difference, and would completely change the graph in the parent article.

- There is nothing useful to be taken away from comparing its sales numbers against a bunch of SaaS companies. Here's a better idea - put it on a graph along with sales of Echo, Fire TV, Philips Hue, Chromecast, Roku, Ring, Tile, Duracell AA Battery, GoPro etc.

the_watcher3• 7 years ago

We also have no idea what the margins are on AirPods. It's not at all accurate to apply overall Apple gross margins (which include high-margin offerings like their services and iPhones) to AirPods, which are likely one of their lowest margin products.

larrydag• 7 years ago

Also this is revenue numbers too. No mention of margins over expenses.

adventured• 7 years ago

Apple infamously has high margins on its hardware.

If we were to consider that, the comparison is guaranteed to be dramatically worse (in the favor of Apple).

Shopify, Snapchat and Spotify have yet to earn a single net dollar in profit. They're all still losing money as of their most recent quarters. And their lifetime losses are epic to say the least. Twitter also may still be negative for its lifetime, given its very substantial past losses.

If Apple has even modest 10% margins on the Airpods (it's more likely to be 2x to 3x that), it's at least a billion a year in profit right now. That's probably more than Spotify could earn on its zero margin business even if you gave them $20 billion in sales.

123six3• 7 years ago

Also, sources are updated in the article. Thanks for mentioning the lack of links.

morganvachon2• 7 years ago

It's not just the numbers, there are other wild assumptions going on.

That means almost all iPhone users are still either using wired earphones or none at all.

I'm sorry, what? Non-Apple branded Bluetooth earphones (including AirPod knockoffs) are ubiquitous, and far outnumber wired earphones (in part thanks to Apple and many Android OEMs dropping headset jacks).

jasonshen• 7 years ago

Yeah this line alone also made me do a double take and question everything else he said

Fnoord22• 7 years ago

(in part thanks to Apple and many Android OEMs dropping headset jacks).

That only happened on high-end smartphones. Low-end and mid-range still have 3.5 mm socket.

(Also, I actually look around regularly at the train station, and I still see mostly wired headsets. I'm using a wireless one, btw.)

paulddraper3• 7 years ago

Imagine thinking that AirPods were the first wireless headset.

52-6F-62• 7 years ago

Reporting from Toronto:

You see a lot of AirPods (I was gifted a set myself) but you see even more wireless over-ear headphones. I probably notice those the most. And wired are still common, though not necessarily 3.5mm.

nl2• 7 years ago

Non-Apple branded Bluetooth earphones (including AirPod knockoffs) are ubiquitous, and far outnumber wired earphones (in part thanks to Apple and many Android OEMs dropping headset jacks).

Do you mean they are ubiquitous with people using iPhones? Because here is Australia I would guesstimate that 80% of in-ear wireless earphone used with Apple devices are AirPods.

I think probably 50% of people I know who've bought an iPhone in the last year have bought AirPods at the same time (if they didn't already have them).

Over/On ear headphone are a different story, as is Android.

josteink• 7 years ago

I'm sorry, what? Non-Apple branded Bluetooth earphones (including AirPod knockoffs) are ubiquitous, and far outnumber wired earphones (in part thanks to Apple and many Android OEMs dropping headset jacks).

Maybe in new sales, but not in deployed use.

I’ll buy a quality headset or in-ear and it might last me a decade.

Dwolb• 7 years ago

I mean sure? Does that really change the point of the article?

Even 25% of those numbers gets us to really impressive revenue numbers.

Additionally the author's conclusion that although Airpod revenue is relatively good for a technology company, it's small compared to Apple's total revenue and as compared to the future value of services revenue this hardware enables.

remote_phone• 7 years ago

I bought my wife AirPods gen 2 earlier this year, and then bought her the AirPod pro with noise cancellation for Xmas. Not common I’m sure but everyone said that noise cancellation was a godsend for taking meetings via phone and she concurred.

ksec• 7 years ago

As always, none of the numbers are official,

Not only were they unofficial, the guess work was wrong. And even the facts were wrong. What annoys me is the blog is actually for investment. ( With Email Newsletter suggesting sign up for insight )

Since 2017, Apple has sold roughly 215 million iPhones per year. These phones cost roughly $1,000 each, and therefore generate $215 billion of revenue for Apple each year. This makes up 81% of Apple’s total revenue

There is no need to guess. Apple actually report ASP when they were reporting Sales Unit Number. In 2017 their iPhone ASP were 618 - 697 depending on Quarter. In 2018 their iPhone ASP were 728 - 793. They stopped reporting unit and ASP in 2019.

Apple Fiscal 2017, 2018, 2019 Revenue was $229.234B, $265.595B, $259.97B And iPhone Revenue was $141.29 , $166.8B, iPhone % of revenue was ~62% to of their revenue.

Not 80%.

The blog post could have been so much better if he spend 10min actually looking up those number.

Kylekramer2• 7 years ago

I've idly thought that Spotify should get into hardware. Headphones and/or speaker, purchase it connected to your account, and one touch button to a stream of music you like.

Obviously a million times easier said than done, but has to be a better margin business than where they currently are and would be good lock in.

taurath2• 7 years ago

A “single purpose music box” would be neat to me. Maybe it controls all the speakers in my house, informs me of concerts coming up, let’s me set a mood, and most importantly doesn’t care about anything else.

I feel like every gadget being in one is gonna start breaking down now that software interop is more of a thing.

mrguyorama2• 7 years ago

Chromecast is $35 and will play spotify and other apps pretty darn well.

read_if_gay_3• 7 years ago

I feel like every gadget being in one is gonna start breaking down now

The smartphone has a huge advantage: you only need to have 1 device in your pocket to do everything. Not having to go get something from another room may not seem like a big deal but I think it really is. (Or I am just lazy.)

askmike• 7 years ago

A headphone that only works with Spotify? My Bose QC that I can use for anything (including Spotify - with a single on button to connect to bluetooth controlled via my phone or laptop) isn't really inconvenient or anything.

Kylekramer2• 7 years ago

Yup, that is the idea. Obviously it would be less useful than standard headphones for a HN reader, but the mass market may disagree.

For example, to use the parent cliche, my sister got my father AirPods this Christmas despite me saying it is probably a bad idea. And it has gone unused because he doesn't grok Bluetooth even in the simplified AirPod way (also, his iPhone is too old to support it natively). But if I gave him a pair of headphones and said "press this button, it will play Van Morrison and Sly Stone", he would use it in a heartbeat.

_bxg15• 7 years ago

The only way I could see that working is if they had a built-in cellular modem and the data usage was covered under your existing subscription. Just a direct-to-internet Spotify hose. Even then it would be a tough sell; single-purpose hardware rarely does well in a multi-purpose world.

mhh__10• 7 years ago

Sonos seems to get away with charging about a million pounds a pop so there's definitely money in it (They're good speakers but £349 - the price of a quality musical instrument or a whole computer - for a device that connects a Hi-Fi to the internet is daylight robbery).

dsalzman• 7 years ago

Airpods are an integral part of Apple's future medical ambition. Always in ear Airpods constantly taking your Temp, HR, Glucose, GSR, etc. With the kicker that it is only stored locally and securely on your device, all processing done locally via HealthKit. That customized data will change how we think about patient care.

basch• 7 years ago

With the kicker that it is only stored locally

Do you think most people would want to lose all their data if they lose their device?

reaperducer6• 7 years ago

It's certainly possible for the Apple Health data to be backed up to iCloud. I haven't changed devices recently, so I don't know if it is.

abtinf• 7 years ago

It has the option to backup to iCloud with end-to-end encryption.

qsymmachus• 7 years ago

Always in ear

What percentage of Airpods owners do you reckon _always_ have them inside their ears?

maximente• 7 years ago

probably pretty high - apparently 17% of people in one survey said they have left them in during sex, so there's that

matwood• 7 years ago

I don’t know about always, but my APP are so comfortable I forget I have them on.

toomanybeersies• 7 years ago

Higher than I'd like. I find it incredibly rude and a bit disconcerting when I'm talking to someone and they've got Airpods stuck in their ears.

madeofpalk• 7 years ago

Airpods are an integral part of Apple's future medical ambition. Always in ear Airpods constantly taking your Temp, HR, Glucose, GSR, etc

I don't think there's nearly enough evidence for this to be an _actual_ thing.

dlivingston• 7 years ago

I effectively exclusively use my AirPods when working out. That alone would skew any medical data dramatically (avg. heart rate, blood pressure, etc.)

alex-wallish• 7 years ago

Wouldn't it be simple to detect that dramatic change and isolate it/ keep it out of averages? I think the fact that people work out in AirPods is a non-issue for this example. If anything, just a way to segment the data and get even more insight.

mhh__10• 7 years ago

That's your problem no?

If they were being fancy I'm guessing you could use some buzzwords (AI etc. etc.) to combine the data along with the moisture content around the ear to determine whether someone is exercising automatically. (Assuming they don't already, my phone seems to be able to but not very accurately)

thewileyone2• 7 years ago

That's going to be annoying.

Barrin92• 7 years ago

That customized data will change how we think about patient care.

People keep repeating this almost like a PR slogan but is there any actual solid evidence that constantly measuring health data has a meaningful impact on average, healthy adults and is a reasonable thing to do?

A non-diabetic person does not need to constantly measure their glucose level, and if anything slight anomalies in otherwise asymptomatic people may very well create health scares or overburden the medical system with people getting things checked out that isn't a problem.

This is a very real trade-off already present for example when it comes to mammographies, with many studies suggesting the routine screening might be a net negative.

The economic incentive for the healthcare industry is very obvious when it comes to putting everyone on 24/7 surveillance, but is there any indication it meaningfully improves the life of individuals in general?

dragonwriter• 7 years ago

People keep repeating this almost like a PR slogan but is there any actual solid evidence that constantly measuring health data has a meaningful impact on average, healthy adults and is a reasonable thing to do?

ISTR some studies that for certain measures, frequent measurement without specific indication of monitoring need tends to drive overtreatment and worse outcomes, not even considering things like mammograms where the measuring actually can contribute to the thing it detects.

john_minsk2• 7 years ago

No. And there can't be. There were 0 generations that were able to track their parameters on a constant basis. If over time it is proven that it is useless we can stop doing it, but for now let's at least try to collect such data and make use of it...

There is still a problem with this PR, since everyone is talking about that, but technology is nowhere near to deliver on those promises. Hope the hype won't kill off real work in developing good sensors.

m_ke• 7 years ago

Currently they're just causing a ton of ear infections and hearing problems.

https://www.reddit.com/r/airpods/comments/e2gmyw/ear_infecti...

Waterluvian2• 7 years ago

Has anyone found any info/study on "average likelihood of losing or damaging an airpod in a given year"?

That's all that's stopping me from buying this and other premium products. I love premium products but not if I have to replace them every year.

tbrock• 7 years ago

Live a little! Nobody would buy anything nice if they were constantly worried about it.

calvinmorrison• 7 years ago

Buying $100+ pair of headphones that are the size of a kidney bean with no strings attached doesn't really seem ridiculous. It's pretty hard to lose old apple wired headphones or real cans like my Bose QuietComforts. I don't have to worry@!

frenchie4111• 7 years ago

It's definitely anecdotal, but I know probably 30+ people who own Airpods and have never heard of anyone losing or having to have them replaced for any reason.

kingosticks• 7 years ago

Except all the people that have to replace them when the battery lifetime expires. You can take as much care as you want with airpods, they will need replacing and you'll need to fork out again.

nathancahill2• 7 years ago

One of the first reviewers of the Macbook Air lost it in a stack of newspapers.

notimetorelax• 7 years ago

I used to be scared to lose mine while running. They never came close to falling out. Also the new generation of the AirPods is more secure in the ear.

_bxg15• 7 years ago

All you have to do is put them in the case whenever you aren't wearing them. The case isn't so small that you're going to lose it. Plus, that way they're always charging.

lordnacho• 7 years ago

How does this compare to Apple Watch? Sounds to me like this is a fairly big upside surprise. If you were given the choice beforehand, which of the two would you want to have managed?

I would have guessed Watch but it looks like I'm wrong. Pretty astonishing that people will throw an extra quarter on top of the price of their phone for this, especially given that I've used noise cancelling headphones before. My guess would have been that removing the wire would only make a small difference.

I guess the market is there to discover this kind of thing. Kudos to Apple for finding this.

_bxg15• 7 years ago

A couple of key things make the experience fundamentally different from traditional headphones, for me:

- I can carry the little dental-floss-case around with me everywhere in my pocket. Even if I don't plan on using them, I have them there just in case. Especially when it comes to noise-cancelling, this has a major effect on day-to-day life for me as unexpected use cases pop up.

- It's not just the lack of a wire: one entire step is eliminated from starting and stopping using your headphones. You just put them in your ears, or take them out. There's no messing with a cord or even a menu on your phone. Something easy is made effortless, which matters.

- Once in, they stay out of the way so well that you can leave them in even if you're not using them. Then when you do unexpectedly decide to watch a video, or take a call, your phone is already plugged directly into your headspace, no extra step necessary.

- All the little details. The fact that taking one out of your ear pauses your media and placing it back in resumes it is essential for wearing them passively while out and about; ordering a coffee, etc. No fumbling with your phone for a pause button; the social signal for "I'm listening" is paired with what you want your media to be doing at that moment.

All of this combines into an experience so frictionless it's mindblowing.

MBCook5• 7 years ago

For what it’s worth I’ve heard Apple has made more money off the Apple Watch than they did from all iPods combined. That business is HUGE too.

But compared to the iPhone it looks small so people dismiss it.

filoleg12• 7 years ago

how does this compare to apple watch

One more thing to consider, Apple Watch works with iPhones only. It might have changed now, but given how integrated with apple ecosystem the watch is, i doubt it is anything but a weak neutered version of the iphone+apple watch experience.

Airpods, on the other hand, work great with Android. The only neutered “features” are those that i dont consider vital at all (like being able to rename the display name of your airpods that gets sent to devices attempting to pair with them).

gz5• 7 years ago

Amazing how Apple managed to make the first cool MP3 player, then the first cool smartphone and now the first cool bluetooth headset. For almost 20 years now, Apple has owned electronic fashion. Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices.

And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itself.

Which I think may bode well for Apple in that we are only scratching the surface of what the tech can do.

wuunderbar• 7 years ago

Don't forget about first cool smartwatch.

NetOpWibby• 7 years ago

Dick Tracy, eat your heart out!

Fnoord22• 7 years ago

The Pebble? Still no decent replacement for it.

rolltiide2• 7 years ago

The tech is cool too

Zero people have been swayed by the observation that the components can be acquired for cheaper

And the non-iOS phone users that are married to “how much control they have” have touched an iphone since 2014.

radlad• 7 years ago

Sorry to burst your bubble, I'm a long-time Android user who switched to the iPhone 6S for about a year and a half, then back to a Pixel 2. Following its release, I bought the iPhone XS expecting to love it and be done with Android.

Oh, how wrong I was. Siri is still garbage, CarPlay is terrible compared to Android Auto. And there's nothing even similar to Google Home. Apple's hands-free story is completely nonexistent which is fine if you've never used a decent hands-free ecosystem, but it's very hard to switch back to.

ryanmcbride• 7 years ago

I was an android hold out for a good while because I didn't like the lack of control iphones had. At some point it flipped and I got sick of how much fiddling I constantly had to do with my phone to get it to work the way I wanted. And even then by the time I got it working well, it wouldn't get updates anymore. I switched to iphone, and while once in a while I'll miss being able to tweak everything, I'm much less frustrated at my phone than before.

misterprime• 7 years ago

And the non-iOS phone users that are married to “how much control they have” have touched an iphone since 2014.

I don't even tinker that much and my foray into iOS lasted only 1 year with the 10S Max. The inability to arrange items freely on the desktop (leave a blank space) was frustrating. The lack of control over default apps was occasionally problematic. The inability to natively link to a Windows computer and transfer files is also something I use.

That said, there are a ton of benefits of iOS over Android that I recognize (iMessage, Apple Wallet, the screen responsiveness, etc).

f1refly2• 7 years ago

now the first cool bluetooth headset [citation needed]

Honstly every time I see someone wearing earpods I can't take him seriously anymore, they look _so_ bad. There's a lot of options on the market, and airpods are the ugliest of them all.

reaperducer6• 7 years ago

When you talk to people, you're supposed to look at their eyes, not their ears.

simias• 7 years ago

I tend to agree with you, I find them pretty ugly and weird looking, but it's also clear that we're outliers here. Those things are hugely popular.

crooked-v3• 7 years ago

As somebody who really likes Airpods, I think they look ridiculous, but they work so darn well that the looks are totally irrelvant.

eanzenberg3• 7 years ago

Not sure about the marketing swaying people these days. People are going for the easiest devices to use that get out of the way and are high quality.

kristianc6• 7 years ago

Which I guess would explain why there are Android phones that crush the iPhone on tech specs but make a minuscule (and sometimes negative) proportion of the industry’s profit?

aianus• 7 years ago

Beats invented the first cool bluetooth headset.

Aromasin2• 7 years ago

Agreed. I'd be more specific and say Apple invented the first fashionable wireless earbuds. I owned a pair of the first Jabra earbuds (of which the latest edition I still use and love) and plenty of those horrid looking, wrap-around, sports ones before Apple came along; I never had anyone say "I want a set of those" until I wore my AirPods for the first time though. They just seem to nail the aesthetics every time.

Ericson2314• 7 years ago

Great point. Furthermore, how much have AirBuds eaten into Beats sales? Is this more revenue for Apple or just shifting the exact product.

jimbokun4• 7 years ago

So of course Apple bought them.

Wonder how much influence that had on current AirPods.

bluedino• 7 years ago

Bluetooth headsets were a status symbol for a while (and then mocked) during the BlackBerry days.

Fnoord22• 7 years ago

Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices.

Sony WF-1000XM3 are a popular in-ear Bluetooth headphones with noise cancelling. 80 EUR cheaper than Apple Airpods Pro.

welly• 7 years ago

.. Which you rarely see stuck in people's ears. You do see those little white airpods everywhere though. People have them stuck in their ears even when they're not playing any audio.

tvararu• 7 years ago

I have both. If the AirPods Pro didn't make my inner ear sore after wearing for 3+ hours, I would sell my Sony's immediately. I might sell them anyway. They are inferior in everything apart from comfort.

iwalton3• 7 years ago

The other nice thing is that it appears it might be possible to change the batteries in the WF-1000XM3. (https://hifigo.com/blogs/tws/deep-dive-teardown-of-true-wire...)

rkuykendall-com4• 7 years ago

Stupid name and impossible to distinguish from their other wireless headphones. This is the Dell XXHBE 34-9q276d.snfd2 vs Macbook Pro all over again.

davinic• 7 years ago

I've wondered if Sony's music ownership interests played a large role in losing that market due to their fear of piracy.

gumby• 7 years ago

Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices.

Actually the Walkman (which was arguably Sony's second breakout product, the first being a transistor radio) Sony was definitely the cool kid. And don't forget the Playstation or the Trinitron.

In fact Steve Jobs explicitly emulated and admired Sony for their (then) sense of style, customer appeal and quality.

The Sony of today is a different company. Despite the PS2 success I date the decay to when they bought United Artists.

femiagbabiaka• 7 years ago

It's odd that you say decay. IMO Sony's products are still quite good! I have a Sony-WM1A sitting next to me right now that's well-made, and I'm using Sony WF-1000MX3's as headphones, which are also well made. Not only that, but the Sony MDR-EX1000's that I own that are quite old are still buzzing. I can't quite say that for many Apple products I've purchased in the last decade.

jdfellow• 7 years ago

No doubt that Sony becoming a major media company has hurt their consumer electronics business.

jVinc• 7 years ago

OP wasn't saying walkman wasn't cool or have a significant market position, in fact he's saying the exact opposite. That Sony had the position an failed to use it to position new devices. Apple turned the iPod into the iPhone and iPad and now they have AirPods coming off of the same train using each product brand to push the brand of the next.

Sony had the Walkman but missed the mp3-player market, didn't bring out a walkman phone, and now they have a product competing with AirPods that's naturally completely disconnected from the walkman both directly and indirectly because "walkmen are ancient" which is not some universal truth, that's just what they let their previously powerful brand degrade to. They've wisely chosen to brand their Airpod competitor the Sony WF1000XM3, who doesn't want products that sound like version of cruiser missiles, or shipping container dimensions? Ironically I heard a friened describe his pair as his "Sony AirPods", because that's what they are to him, the equivalent of Apple AirPods but cheaper and made by Sony, because even the people who own the product can't remember the name. So naturally friends ask why not get "Real" AirPods? And his answer was price, which makes the product sound like a cheap discount version. But it's in the same price range and same quality and even beat out the AirPods in some reviews. Talk about a branding disaster.

microtherion• 7 years ago

In my experience, the cool Japanese hardware company these days is Nintendo. The Switch is just about the neatest consumer electronics product I've ever bought (at least among the non-Apple branded ones).

kristianc6• 7 years ago

And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itself.

By definition all of the businesses that survive are good at marketing - Apple has managed to drive extraordinary value through positioning and differentiation and left everyone else to compete over the collapsing middle market.

Sony’s precise problem was underinvesting on positioning and brand and relying on their technical advantage ... which proved a problem when everyone else caught up with the tech and they couldn’t repeat the trick with other devices.

People say marketing like it’s something to be ashamed of, and that Apple should deliberately hobble itself by being bad at it. It’s really critical.

_trampeltier• 7 years ago

Sony's problem was never the hardware or the design. The problem was, special in the beginning of the MP3 / Smartphone age, they tryed to lock everything so hard with DRM (because other parts from Sony does sell Movies and Music). The even installed something like an trojan already very early in the MP3 market. So al lot of tech guys said "bye, bye Sony" when the market still was very young. I think they lost a lot because they had been so aggresive with there software in a such young market.

jimbokun4• 7 years ago

Sony failed to compete against Apple because they weren't as good at software.

yibg• 7 years ago

Not sure if I’m typical in this or not but I’m a heavy apple user but have been mostly “forced” into it but ended up loving them.

Got my first MacBook because of work. Was previously a windows / Linux user and didn’t get macs but ended up loving the MacBook Pro. Got an iPhone from work too, ended up loving that too. Got a pair of AirPods as present, use it pretty frequently now.

Seems like both a good thing (like it after using it) and a bad thing (wouldn’t have gotten into it if not for the unplanned opportunity) for Apple.

filoleg12• 7 years ago

I think one of the strokes of genius for Apple here was the fact that they made AirPods work just as well with Android phones as they do with iPhones (minus a few secondary features).

Back when i bought airpods 2 years ago, I still had an Android, and they blew me away in terms of UX. Up to that moment, i have tried and failed to find a pair of fully wireless earbuds that worked as well and sounded as good (for earbuds, obviously). And even today, out of all people i know with android phones, about a third of them use airpods. Each one of them had a similar story of quiet dismissal of airpods for quite a while since the release, then they tried them, and bought them shortly after.

P.S. as of now, there are a few good non-airpods truly wireless earbuds that are solid alternatives. Back when i got them, however, every single model out there I tried had some critical flaw. Things like dropped connection or sound getting choppy and stuttery in certain areas. It mostly happened on busy street intersections, so i guess it had something to do with interference from a lot of other bluetooth devices, because the exact same thing used to happen to bluetooth connection in my old car at one specific heavy traffic intersection.

freepor4• 7 years ago

It’s not just the marketing - it’s that if you buy all of your tech from Apple you have 1) top-quartile product quality and 2) remarkable little upkeep to do compared to compiling a collection of multiple brands.

asdff6• 7 years ago

What upkeep do you do with a $15 bluetooth headphone?

philjohn2• 7 years ago

it's also the ecosystem.

I have an Apple Watch, it unlocks my laptop automatically. My AirPods connect seamlessly to my phone for listening to music, my watch when I'm working out and my laptop when I'm doing video calls at work. Continuity, AirDrop, AirPlay ... you can't deny that Apple has built an impressive ecosystem.

pascalxus• 7 years ago

i mean, i know airpds are the new platform on top of which things will be built.

"what the tech can do"? you mean the airpods?

what else is there?

spullara• 7 years ago

You missed the first cool smart watch.

penagwin• 7 years ago

Pebble?

lowdose• 7 years ago

If Apple can make the same leap from iPod to iPhone with these earbuds we are going to see a sweat new product range.

Jim Collins talked about his conversations with Steve Jobs at the end of the Knowledge project podcasts. He started talking to Steve after Steve got fired from Apple.

addicted• 7 years ago

I strongly disagree about the fashion bit.

The iPod was better than any competitor it faced ever. The UI with the click wheel was completely unmatched. Maybe the Zune, years later, came close, but Apple absolutely crushed it with the iPhone and iPod touch.

The iPhone was leaps and bounds ahead of its time, to the point that the then King of the hill, BlackBerry, didn’t even think it was possible. And the smoothness of the UI was completely unmatched. The pocketPCs of the time were clunky messes. The iPhone’s UI was so far ahead that it’s now the default UI for every phone.

And finally, the AirPods are a far superior experience than the alternatives. In addition though, the AirPods are extremely competitively priced.

Fnoord22• 7 years ago

My iRiver H340 was ahead of its time. It supported MP3 and Ogg Vorbis and had 40 GB, while the iPods of around that time were running around with 4 GB. Oh, and iTunes DRM.

I bought an iPod Classic later on (with 160 GB) to experience the genius usability of the iPod. Except, I didn't experience it.

The major innovation of the iPhone was that it had a capacitive touch UI (which allows finger use, gestures, etc). The iPhone did not have an App Store during release. It was missing a lot of features. It was Nokia who was the market leader around that point. I wish they fully bet on Maemo and capacitive touch instead of Windows Phone (they went the right way with the N9, but the predecessors were still too much on pen and resistive touch, or hybrid).

Right now, it is oddly enough Jolla who have a partly proprietary, partly FOSS, Linux-based OS (SFOS) for which you need a paid license for. After that, they won't track you though. The iPhone would've never sustained a big pie of the smartphone market though; it is Android which killed Nokia. Official SFOS has Android emulation.

sandoooo• 7 years ago

Remember itunes? UI was horrible from day one and got worse over the years until they killed it. I don't think it was ever a dealbreaker. UI is not the whole story here.

ikeboy8• 7 years ago

My understanding is that the Airpods are not better than the high-end competition. There's plenty of $100-150 Bluetooth earbuds that have better sound quality, and a handful of sub-$100 ones that are just as good. You're paying for the name.

https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-airpods-review-wireles...

The biggest downside? Their sound is just OK. AirPods produce a perfectly average sound that's clear in the mid-tones and is good for podcasts but doesn't pack much in the low end. And because of their open design, sound isolation is terrible. There's also no noise cancellation, so you'll be stuck hearing traffic or crowds around you. The Jabra Elite 65Ts produce much better sound at about the same price. Even budget alternatives like the $80 Anker Soundcore earbuds offer just-as-good sound for half the price.

I've read pretty much the same take from most reviewers I've looked at. It matches quality on cheaper models, and is outpaced by competitors in the same price range.

Tade0• 7 years ago

And finally, the AirPods are a far superior experience than the alternatives. In addition though, the AirPods are extremely competitively priced.

The former is subjective, as for the latter - what's the competition to which they are favourably priced?

rconti2• 7 years ago

And the Zune was crippled by PlaysForSure DRM, even coming later.

Apple added on their own crippling DRM after that.

scottrogers86• 7 years ago

All made possible by multitouch coming out of MIT! This is the video if i am not mistaken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89sz8ExZndc

filmgirlcw4• 7 years ago

AirPods are objectively great and it has taken 3 years for anything better to come out (and I would rather have seamless pairing than negligible audio quality improvements), but fashion is absolutely part of this.

The same is true of the iPod and of the iPhone. To me, that doesn’t diminish from the fact that those are/were best-in-class products, but the ubiquity is absolutely based on fashion.

The same is true of the Apple Watch. Of course the irony here is the Apple Watch was very much marketed as a fashion accessory first. That didn’t work. When the messaging pivoted to health and those capabilities got better then the completion (and there is no Android Apple Watch competition. Fitbit is the closest.), adoption spiked. But again, there is a still a very strong fashion component, even tho that isn’t a large part of the marketing anymore (the attempts to target luxury fashionistas have shifted and that has IMHO made for a better product all around). You don’t get a smart watch. You get an Apple Watch.

rahimnathwani• 7 years ago

"The iPod was better than any competitor it faced ever. The UI with the click wheel was completely unmatched."

I preferred the Creative Zen Touch to the iPod from the same year (2004), because:

- it had a great UI (similar to the iPod's, but the scroll area was vertical instead of circular)

- I could load music onto it easily (no need to use a special app)

IIRC Apple and Creative had some litigation about the IP for the UI, although I don't recall the details.

EDIT: I agree with your point about the iPhone.

baybal27• 7 years ago

iPod was a shitty player few tiers below the competition. Tiny battery life, tons of bugs, IO limitations, iTunes nonsence, original, but unergonomic ui, mechanically unsound engineering.

iRivers, Cowons, and Samsungs were a head above it without any doubt. They were just never marketed in US.

Same with Smartphones. Japanese phones had all features of a smartphone a decade before the rest of the world, but they never bothered to market them outside thinking of outside world being "not advanced enough" to culturally absorb a phone as an integral lifestyle element, and not as a work tool.

heavyset_go6• 7 years ago

The iPhone’s UI was so far ahead that it’s now the default UI for every phone.

When it comes to multitasking, the WebOS card metaphor won out and even came to iOS.

asdff6• 7 years ago

The fashion was everything. The ipod mini with it's colors. The iconic dancing silloutte ad campaign, where the only defining characteristic is the status symbol of the all white ipod and all white headphone.

Growing up during the rise of the ipod, it absolutely was a status symbol first and foremost. Owning a zune gave you more ridicule in middle school than not owning an mp3 player at all. People were buying earpods without even buying an ipod, just to have that white cord dangling out of their ear.

Maybe older generations saw it as good tech only, but for late millenials, the ipod's popularity was due to an obsession for vanity. These were the years where everything had to be either lacoste, abercrombie, hollister, american eagle, or a 6 inch tall polo man, after all.

Part of the airpods success is that they tap into this obsession toward vanity harbored deep within millenials, who have also moved on from mall brands to gucci/balenciaga/supreme/insert bougie brand of the decade.

ScriptToddler• 7 years ago

I agree with your opinion on the early iPod and iPhone, but personally I bought a pair of Bang and Olufsen wireless earpods around when the earpods gen 1 were released. I was not a big fan of the Apple design. My dad got the Apple earpods and to be honest, sound quality compared to mine was very lacking. It felt like Apple was a ripoff here.

As well any Apple main product this day in my opinion. Good and decent products, but severely overpriced. Nothing close to as revolutionary as they were in the early days. Look at functions in new models of iPhones or hardware upgrades in Macs, they are not new or exciting. These days they are so much alternatives, it's a wonder to me why Apple is still so popular. It has to be a fashion or prestige feeling in my opinion. And it's only a matter of time before that dies out in my opinion.

kabacha2• 7 years ago

oof, this sort of writing is why I avoid any apple threads on hackernews. "X was better than Y" without any sort of support.

How come we have such high expectations for argument quality for every other topic other than how "apple is better" - it has reached the point where I read it and I almost jump to astroturfing conclusions. Fortunately for Apple their fans are dedicated enough to astroturf for free!

mettamage• 7 years ago

I agree with this. I once thought I lost my airpods, and had some gripes with them, so I bought a similar priced bluetooth headset from another brand. I wore those for 2 weeks and had many more gripes with it.

Then I found that my airpods were under the couch and I immediately switched back.

rkuykendall-com4• 7 years ago

AirPods don't have a single competitor. There's no clear alternative on the market.

It's Air Pod or...

TOZO T10? Sony XB950B1? LETSCOM IPX7? KOVEBBLE IPX7?

Fuck I have no idea what all these numbers and letters mean, I'll buy some Air Pods.

farmerbb• 7 years ago

There's plenty of AirPods competitors on the market now with easily recognizable names. I'm a proud Samsung Galaxy Buds user myself.

swozey3• 7 years ago

Sony WF-1000MX3s, Jabra Elite 65ts (which I own and don't like using at all, should've returned), Samsung Galaxy Buds (my commute dailies and much more akin to airpods in use, not amazing but I love them). There are now a lot of BT5 mobile earbuds w/ good ANC in the $100-300 range. Not sure what the top of the line in the last 3 months has become as I'm now swimming in headphones. My work dailies are the Sony WH1000XM3s (which actually replaced my XB950B1s, XBs don't have ANC like 1000s do).

To someone who uses Sony, AudioTechnica (loved my ATH-M50s for.. 5+ years) , Jabra. etc you tend to learn the numbering not that it's great. It's like buying a 3 series or 5 series BMW. There's usually some way to determine which class they're in from that brand, like the Sonys were 1000MX2s before they became 1000MX3s, next will be the MX4, the preceding WF or WH is earbuds vs over-ear (no idea what WF or WH actually means, though).

thethrowboat• 7 years ago

What does air pods mean? I guess they are bluetooth headphones, but what are the specs, do they work with non-apple hardware/software? I would have to search for that info, so its just the same if they were called AIR IPX7 T10.

jzwinck• 7 years ago

Huawei Freebuds and Xiaomi Airdots are clear alternatives in Asia at least. Airpods are very popular too, even in places where the cost seems prohibitive, partly because the Huawei and Xiaomi ones are also premium products.

Can_Not2• 7 years ago

AirPods don't have a single competitor. There's no clear alternative on the market.

Why do you need only one competitor? I picked a random non-apple bluetooth 5 earpod and it's a superior product for over $100 less as far as I can tell.

mhh__10• 7 years ago

If you have enough money not to care then fair enough, different target markets.

The sony WF-1000XM3 get mentioned immediately if you google/reddit/etc for "Air Pod Alternative"

zelly• 7 years ago

You act like the fashion is not tech. Their stuff looks good because of engineering all the way down. Looking good is a feature.

I disagree with the idea that it's marketing. Apple does very little marketing these days. Apple products are a memetic virus.

saagarjha8• 7 years ago

Apple does very little marketing these days.

Apple does a significant amount of marketing, and I'd argue that they've been steadily ramping it up recently. It's just that they're usually a lot better at staying out of your face about it.

capkutay• 7 years ago

Remember when the airpods first came out? SNL, Conan O'Brian, all of twitter were basically dragging it through the mud and making a mockery of them. 3 years later you can't walk around a major city or airport without seeing a significant amount of people using them.

tootie2• 7 years ago

People made fun of pagers, cell phones and bluetooth headsets pretty relentlessly too.

tootie2• 7 years ago

Apple is marketing company.

seppin4• 7 years ago

I hate Apple marketing, their ads always annoy me. Great products tho

Can_Not2• 7 years ago

first cool MP3 player

The iPod was far from the first, far from the best, and maybe even technically not an mp3 player.

nothis• 7 years ago

Replace "cool" with "actually working great" and I'm with you.

isoskeles2• 7 years ago

Hahaha, one of the actual coolest, most fashionable people I’ve known had nothing nice to say about AirPods. She said, “Steve Jobs would have never allowed that to happen.” And to be frank, they don’t look any better than the Bluetooth headsets that were around for years before, so I have to agree with her assessment. Personal taste, of course, but I’ve also never heard anyone say that AirPods look “cool” ever.

The only upside is they’re branded, so you can make yourself look like you’re the type of person who owns Apple products. Wow.

yoz-y2• 7 years ago

Straight from the basket of pretentious people who think they know what Steve Jobs would have wanted. They don't. Even Steve from year Y would not know what Steve from year Y+1 would want.

baby3• 7 years ago

And the first cool smartwatch (although I would never buy one myself)

holografix2• 7 years ago

Not so sure about _the first_ but might agree to _the coolest_ ;-) Motorola Razr was very cool when it came out.

_bxg15• 7 years ago

At a time when Apple in many ways feels like it's stagnating, the AirPods are a breath of fresh air. With an "old Apple" focus on the details, they present a fantastic user experience and give me faith that Apple still has the ability to innovate when freed from the constraints of a long-lived, entrenched product.

gigatexal• 7 years ago

It’s because they’re amazing. They’re seamless. And the work well enough and I didn’t know I hated wired earbuds until I got them.

taf2• 7 years ago

Now I can’t wait for Apple glass - fashion forward enhance eye glasses

jdhn• 7 years ago

I'm with you, Apple contact lenses would be amazing.

zyang• 7 years ago

It's incredible these tiny earbuds generate more than half the revenue of Tesla.

fizixer• 7 years ago

Do Airpods have a built-in microphone, and audio/ambient mixing (with ratio controllable through the phone)?

I can't believe this feature is not standard on today's headphone products, especially digital ones.

edit: Thanks for the responses. Looks like Airpods pro do have this feature. Thumbs up!

sleepinseattle• 7 years ago

AirPods Pro do—“transparency” mode—but you can’t control the amount of mixing.

Psyonic• 7 years ago

Airpods Pro do. Along with noise cancelling that's the main improvement.

_bxg15• 7 years ago

All AirPods have dual microphones (one in each ear). AirPods Pro let you toggle between noise cancelling and active ambient mixing.

MBCook5• 7 years ago

You got answers about AirPods Pro. On the normal AirPods there is no need because they’re not isolating earphones, you can still hear ambient sound just fine.

madrox• 7 years ago

A couple years ago, I got a bit of saltwater in my iPhone and the headphone jack failed. Since the next generation of iPhone (the iPhone X) was about to come out, I held onto it for a couple months and bought AirPods.

I then realized this was Apple's real reason for eliminating the headphone jack. It had nothing to do with courage. It was about eliminating a deeply ingrained user habit so they could solve the problem they themselves created. I wouldn't have bothered with the AirPods if my headphone jack had continued to function.

That said, I don't know if Apple's strategy bothers me. There are a lot of user behaviors rooted in history and old constraints rather than good usability. There are a lot of downsides, but as someone who views technology as ephemeral I don't know if it matters to me.

reaperducer6• 7 years ago

I then realized this was Apple's real reason for eliminating the headphone jack.

To do away with the point of failure that you so aptly illustrated by getting salt water in your phone?

I wouldn't have bothered with the AirPods if my headphone jack had continued to function.

That's you, though. There are clearly millions and millions of people who don't want wires.

londons_explore3• 7 years ago

The millions of people want reliability. They want something that just works.

Wires don't just work when they get tangled or broken.

Wireless doesn't just work when it runs out of batteries, gets glitches/interference, or is hassle to pair.

Apple was able to tip the 'just works' balance through good engineering.

cortesoft• 7 years ago

I don't think the person you replied to is saying they wanted wires, just that they were entrenched in using what they had until they were forced to switch. It sounds like they like the new world better, just it took a push to get them to switch.

vinay4274• 7 years ago

To do away with the point of failure that you so aptly illustrated by getting salt water in your phone?

That's Apple's point of failure. The rest of the industry (mostly) has worked out how to make a headphone jack water-resistant.

vinay4274• 7 years ago

To do away with the point of failure that you so aptly illustrated by getting salt water in your phone?

That's Apple's point of failure. The rest of the industry (mostly) has worked out how to make a headphone jack water-resistant, years before Apple made any phone water-resistant at that.

michaelborromeo• 7 years ago

I mean yeah they have an interest in selling more ear buds.

But after having used Bluetooth headphones for a while, going back to wired headphones was pure hell.

dwild2• 7 years ago

But after having used Bluetooth headphones for a while, going back to wired headphones was pure hell.

For me going back to wired was amazing. I no longer had to charge my headphone to listen to my music. Want to output to the speaker? Just unplug them physically.

I'm sure the airpod support this much better than the Bluetooth headphone I had on Android, but my biggest pet peeve was shutting them down each time I put them in my pocket, or else any call would go to them.

scarejunba2• 7 years ago

You could see this a different way. Apple has a way of being the forcing function on tech: serial ports, CD drives, low-res displays, Flash, USB-A, headphone jacks.

They push us into a new shift in technology each time. It's like accelerating us by being a single large agent. No one else has the market presence. Suddenly I was able to buy Jabra earbuds that are pretty damned good but the equivalent of which cost twice or thrice as much.

I've always wanted ones like this, not the weird "around the back of the head like I can't keep my glasses on" ones that make me look like a dork and not the "sound quality is worthless and you look like a stock trader" jawbone ones. This is the best world.

Shank• 7 years ago

I used to have wired headphones die all the time due to stress on the wires connecting to the earbuds or to the phone, and get ripped out while walking nonchalantly down the road. There are a lot of problems with wires that are solved by not having them.

mhh__10• 7 years ago

This is quite alien to me, I've had the same pair of pink Sony (£10) Earbuds* for the last 3 years on pretty much continuous use (Running, Working, Walking etc.) and they're faultless despite having been through the wash twice (and various other beatings).

* My hearing is a bit weird so with the right EQ they're better than pretty much anything other than actual speakers for me.

dkonofalski10• 7 years ago

so they could solve the problem they themselves created

I don't know if I agree with this assessment. Apple is, to a fault, driven by the user experience of their products and what the "ideal" of a situation should be. It's very likely that AirPods, or some early variant, was discussed while Steve Jobs was at Apple and the conversation probably went something like:

"What would be the perfect user experience for listening to music on an iPhone?"

"I pick up my phone and hit play and the music plays directly into my ears."

AirPods are about as close as someone can get to buying the product, putting them in their ears, and immediately listening as you can get. They set themselves up as soon as you open their case and they automatically connect to the active audio device when you put them in your ears. No one would ever add a wired cable to that process unless they absolutely had to for technical reasons. The only way to make this even more ideal is that the listening device is already in your ear or they can beam the audio directly into your ear canal without some kind of device you insert.

mfer• 7 years ago

They're easy to loose! You have to keep buying more

saagarjha8• 7 years ago

They're really not.

signalremotefac• 7 years ago

And uber and wework and well...take your pick...zoom, that other one and that other one. You know the one with the logo. slack. Is it called podhop? hoppod? Airbnb, put them in too.

Thinking about it... I probably make more money than Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat and shopify.

malloreon• 7 years ago

First, unit sales of AirPods have significant room to grow from here. 110 million AirPods have been sold since they launched, while Apple’s installed base of iPhones is 900 million. That means almost all iPhone users are still either using wired earphones or none at all.

I use $15 bluetooth earbuds cause I don't want to worry about losing them.

just_myles• 7 years ago

Link doesn't work for me. Interested in any correlation between airpod use and making more money than Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat, and Shopify combined.... why does that even matter in this case? Do airpods read twitter feeds to you :D ?

mark-r• 7 years ago

And now we discover why Apple removed the traditional headphone jack - and why it's never coming back.

mastazi5• 7 years ago

I can't wear any earphones for more than 5 minutes without them falling off, this is due to the morphology of my ears. I wonder: how large is the percentage of people with the same problem? Anecdotal, but I know personally at least a couple other people that can't wear earphones for the same reason.

Note: I'm talking about earphones/earbuds exclusively, headphones are fine for obvious reasons. Also some types of earphones (designed for sports) that have "ear-hooks" behind the ear are fine since the hooks will keep them in place.

Note 2: my ears don't have the "bump" (not sure what the scientific term is) that is circled in red in this picture https://imgur.com/a/CJv20Zu

Edit: that bump that I don't have is called "Antitragus" https://elementsofmorphology.nih.gov/anatomy-ear.shtml

smhinsey• 7 years ago

If it's an ongoing problem that you really want to solve, check out companies like Etymotic who will take custom molds and make you exactly the earbud you need. I don't have headphones like this but I did get my musician-quality earplugs for live music done this way and it is a 1000% game changer for me.

skizm• 7 years ago

The pros you sort of shove into the ear canal and they're more or less wedged in place, right? Same with other earbuds like jaybirds. They're very different design than the normal airpods in that sense which I could totally see falling out if you were missing this "bump" on your ear.

mastazi5• 7 years ago

So as I said in another comment in this thread, in my experience, many in-ear earphones don't have enough "grip" inside the ear canal and while they will stay in place in the short term (5-10 minutes) they still rely on that "bump" in order to stay in place in the long term. The ones I've tried had rubber tips, another user told me that there are some with memory foam, maybe those ones would work

downerending• 7 years ago

True for me as well, but more importantly, the horrible audio quality literally causes me pain. Something to do with the poor frequency eq curve and limited range, I'm guessing.

(Plus, phones that leak audio seem rude in public places.)

eddiecalzone2• 7 years ago

Interesting! Do foam earplugs work for you (expanding in the ear)? If so, Comply makes foam tips to fit various models of earbuds.

mastazi5• 7 years ago

Yes the foam earplugs that you wear for noise protection work for me, before reading this thread I didn't know that there were foam tips for earphones, thanks for the tip (pun intended)

velosol2• 7 years ago

Does this mean you can't wear in-ear monitor type things, e.g. memory foam tipped earbuds that stay in (I thought) through pressure in the ear canal?

mastazi5• 7 years ago

In my experience, many in-ear earphones don't have enough "grip" inside the ear canal and they still rely on that "bump" in order to stay in place. I'm talking about the ones that have a soft rubbery tip, I've never tried earphones with memory foam though.

fancyfish• 7 years ago

You’re not alone, I have trouble keeping earbuds in also. If I keep my head still, they will slowly slip out after about a half hour. Doing any sort of exercise will make them fall out. I have tried many different tip types and sizes for these and other earbuds/IEMs. Outside of expensive custom-fit IEMs, I’m not sure what to do besides resort back to over-ear headphones.

krazyk8s• 7 years ago

You are definitely not alone! I have a very small antitragus, earbuds are not an option for me. They hold so poorly that I can't even walk around without them falling out, much less do any real activity. And if that weren't bad enough, for some reason they cause a significant amount of pain after 10 minutes or so.

usertrjx• 7 years ago

I have the same problem with the old airpods, but I have had no problem with other type of in ear ear bud like the pro models.

mastazi5• 7 years ago

Unfortunately those don't work for me either. Yes the in-ear ones will stay in place for a longer time, but never more than about 10 minutes, which is not enough to make them viable for me.

jtms• 7 years ago

I lack that same bump! Historically I have only ever bought the kind of earbuds with the behind the ear hooks as well. That being said, the airpod pros stay put for me pretty well out of the box, but even better after I modded them with some memory foam.

hellllllllooo2• 7 years ago

Most profitable company in the tech world creates new product and uses prior manufacturing skill, brand awareness/loyalty, device lock-in, advertising experience and retail channels to sell it and makes more profit that arbitrary list of companies in different business areas. What's the point?

MBCook5• 7 years ago

The point is that one little product is HUGE. Just MASSIVE. People may not think it’s very big because it’s such a small share of Apple’s revenue but it would be a success everyone talked about if a third party had got those numbers.

excitom• 7 years ago

Based on the lively discussion generated in this thread - because it's interesting.

hellllllllooo2• 7 years ago

Sure. But it's hardly suprising nor is it a useful comparison to say airpods make more revenue than Twitter.

Vysero• 7 years ago

I really don't understand. Why would someone pay $120 for a product they can buy online from a off brand retailer for half the price? I must be missing something. How are airpods better than say Cambridge Audio Melomania's which are almost half the cost?

MBCook5• 7 years ago

Have you used them?

They’re ridiculously low friction. Stick them in your ears and they’re on and paired and ready. Take them out and they’re off. Store them and they’re charging. Trivial to swap them between Apple devices, easy to pair the first time.

And they sound great considering their size.

They’re little magic gizmos that make me (and millions of others) happy because they work so well.

krick2• 7 years ago

Come on, they sound terrible compared to other true-wireless earbuds in the same price range. And to be turned on/off automatically is absolutely standard even for cheaper earbuds. The only thing that is true specifically for AirPods is swapping between Apple devices.

Yptur• 7 years ago

I once was looking for my airpods for 15 minutes until I realized that I was wearing them. Never had that with any earbuds before. Admittedly I was wearing a beanie (cold outside), ready to leave home and it was in the morning (so still sleepy)

Edit: that's a good thing

velosol2• 7 years ago

Check out [1] - also the Melomanias are the closest I've found to wired quality headphones (and absurdly good battery life) that also are close enough to 'just working' but they were $99 last I looked.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21985320

eddiecalzone2• 7 years ago

From the article:

Apple may launch an operating system for AirPods in 2020, and apps like TTYL and Yac are already creating buzz as audio-first applications.

Apple being Apple, this integration will likely only work with airpods. But I'm with you. I'd rather have great sounding music. I have an android phone and $60 earbuds, both of which support the LDAC 990kbps standard. This sounds much better than when I pair the same earbuds with my Macbook using AAC.

russell_h• 7 years ago

I was at Costco a while ago and overheard a conversation between some kind of store manager and several visitors in suits.

The manager was explaining that on weeks when AirPods are in stock their sales in the electronics department more than double. The exact numbers he mentioned escape me but were staggering. The whole time people were loading thousand dollar TVs onto carts - and the AirPods alone were doing that much over again in sales.

yjhoney2• 7 years ago

I don't wear airpods because I came across a few articles saying they are they are really bad for the environment: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/neae8z/why-airpods-are-a-...

Honestly a little surprised that Airpods would be so successful.

gowld• 7 years ago

In the same way that every electronic product is really bad for the environment and humanity.

redisman• 7 years ago

At least these are tiny compared to the other electronic (and just general plastic) junk I generate. I feel like every grocery trip I end up with 20x the volume of plastic that AirPods have that I would get rid of after a few years.

yjhoney2• 7 years ago

not sure what your point is... should I stop caring because it makes no difference? You care because you care.

lm28469• 7 years ago

They are virtually impossible to repair and the battery becomes shit after a couple of years because they are constantly doing full cycles so yeah, not the best for the environment. Super good for business though.

krick2• 7 years ago

Why though? I don't know anything about AirPods Pro, but previous models were quite mediocre product compared to competition.

headsoup• 7 years ago

The height (another one I suppose) of blind consumerism. Buying wireless versions of the things that come in the box just because. And then also not even attempting to look further than Apple highlights it's not a matter of quality audio experience either.

komali2• 7 years ago

That means almost all iPhone users are still either using wired earphones or none at all.

Lol, or they're using other Bluetooth headphones?

netsharc• 7 years ago

The sentence before that is "First, unit sales of AirPods have significant room to grow from here.".

LOL indeed, is this what counts as market research/insight?

lolc• 7 years ago

We're slowly turning into cyborgs. So far, the pieces are removable so the transformation has not truly started except for some people with disabilities. I wonder for how long that will remain true.

I expect to be the odd guy still using over-ear headphones at some point. When everybody just gets implants. Or maybe I'll just join the crowd when my hearing gets worse. Wouldn't want to miss out on music would I?

mc33• 7 years ago

How do I profit from this information?

saagarjha8• 7 years ago

Buy AirPods.

mc33• 7 years ago

What about an AirPod derivative. AirPod futures?

freepor4• 7 years ago

This is why Bay Area houses cost $2 million and why Enterprise SaaS is the only viable startup sector.

peterwwillis• 7 years ago

Several brands' true wireless earbuds have been rated as just as good or better than Airpods, such as the Jabra Elite 65t and Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2, for significantly less ($100 and under). Newer models (that are also cheaper) beat the AirPods Pro on every metric. I can't see how Airpods will continue to be a market leader if their competitors continue this trend; it'll end up like Android, where some people will pay a premium for a brand, and everyone else will pay less for a competitor.

rvz• 7 years ago

Well its pretty simple. Just remove the most essential feature needed by almost all iPhone users and create a new alternative, forcing everyone to buy AirPods or the second-best alternative. If they won't upgrade soon, then planned obsolescence takes it course. Due to the AirPods being a platform and ecosystem in its self, there is less of a reason for iPhone users to settle on an alternative apart from price, which completes the lock-in.

I would expect Apple to make more out the AirPods after they force those stuck on iPhone 6S's or SE's to upgrade. Revenue-wise, it almost unfair to begin comparing with the revenues with any of those mentioned companies. It just puts things into perspective of how 'successful' the AirPods have become for Apple.

Whatarethese• 7 years ago

For a majority of people wireless earbuds are far superior than tangled corded headphones. Its pretty clear based on how popular in ear Bluetooth earbuds are. Not just on the iOS side either.

SStephano• 7 years ago

I've personally bought 9 of these in the past year and need to buy the Pro's one this month!

mrep2• 7 years ago

Why?

chiefalchemist3• 7 years ago

Not everyone will drop $1k for a new iPhone, but plenty will "upgrade" their old device with Airpods. That's what we're seeing here. The question is: how long can it continue?

shmerl• 7 years ago

Apple starts making wireless headphones (who would think it's a novelty, when they exist for years already), but calls them "airpods" instead of wireless headphones. Hype jumps to the sky, because Apple.

ravenstine2• 7 years ago

Anyone have experience using AirPods with Android? I have a Google Pixel(first gen) and have tried various Bluetooth earbuds, but they all suck and have frequent interference. Would be cool if I can bite the bullet and get AirPods without suffering those same issues.

hoten• 7 years ago

works fine on my pixel 2. You can't 100% control the pods from your phone (only thing I know is you need to sync w/ a mac to change stuff like wifi name).

filoleg12• 7 years ago

Used them for a year on my old Galaxy S8+, no issues whatsoever. In fact, they worked so well, they made me consider a forage into other apple once again, after not using any for over 5 years. A lot of my friends with Androids use airpods as well, and they vastly seem to prefer them, considering that a good number of them went through a few other truly wireless in-ear headphones before settling on airpods.

jakemal• 7 years ago

What features are missing when using Android? I'm going to switch from Android to iPhone when the next generation comes out but was thinking about getting airpods before I get an iPhone. I was curious on what features require the iPhone. I think I am mostly interested in the auto pause when taking them out of your ear and the environment-aware noise cancelation

misiti3780• 7 years ago

Can you run with Airpods in?

JustSomeNobody• 7 years ago

Get some of these[0] and it should be no problem.

[0] EarBuddyz 2.0 Ear Hooks and Covers Accessories Compatible with Apple AirPods 1 & AirPods 2 or EarPods Headphones/ Earphones/ Earbuds (3 Pairs) (Clear) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019BREFE4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_EJ...

jdgiese2• 7 years ago

Yes, although it may depend on the shape of your ears. I trained for the NYC marathon and often (but not always) wore AirPods. I never had them fall out.

wallflower• 7 years ago

Keep an eye on AirPods feature improvements, and the possibility of an Apple audio operating system in 2020.

The out-of-the-box experience for Sonos is Apple like. Yes, there are forums where users have issues, and so does Apple.

If Apple were to acquire Sonos, it would speed things up a bit.

cft• 7 years ago

Airpods are popular not purely on their own merits: new phones don't have a phone jack. So in the sense it's an exploitation of the existing iPhone pricing power.

alexfromapex• 7 years ago

Imagine if they managed to corner the illegal knockoff market how much they’d make

reshie• 7 years ago

as far as headphones go i have never seen one brand on so many heads and the initial sales are impressive. would it not be better to compare like apple music with spotify though. this is also hardware they would last a while and without subscriptions. the sales will continue im sure but start to drop off.

dang• 7 years ago

The submitted title ('Airpods make more money than Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat, and Shopify combined') broke the site guidelines, which say: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize."

Cherry-picking the detail you think is most important from an article is a form of editorializing. If you want to say what you think is important about an article, do not do so by changing the title. Instead, post it as a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

plexiglass• 7 years ago

I enjoyed reading this.

thewileyone2• 7 years ago

Many alternatives with the same solution on Asian online marketplaces for the fraction of the price of AirPods.

Conceptually, it's already the next big thing. Will it be Apple's next big thing? Probably yes, but in a heavily competitive marketplace.

intopieces• 7 years ago

I would love them to be an Apple Watch accessory. My dream is to leave my iPhone at home and do Siri on watch only.

nikhizzle• 7 years ago

As far as I understand, the Apple Watch has Siri, and the AirPods can pair directly with the Apple Watch...no need for a phone.

rajacombinator• 7 years ago

AirPods are an absolute joke. Total ripoff price, poor performance and design. Everyone at Apple should be ashamed.

daveheq• 7 years ago

Why people prefer wireless earphones to wired I'll never know; they cost more, require charging, and are easy to lose.

efraim• 7 years ago

But they don't have wires that are annoying and tethers your head to your phone.

spookybones• 7 years ago

I have them and absolutely hate them. Syncing issues a third of the time that are not easily remedied. I usually just use the wired version, which also gives me volume control.

nkrisc2• 7 years ago

I have to wonder what percentage of people are like me and Apple earbuds/AirPods have never fit their ears? Are my ears that strangely shaped? Most people seem to have no problem when I've never found a pair of Apple earbuds that can stay in my ear if I do anything other than sit completely still and upright. They just don't fit, at all in any way.

I have to use earbuds with a stiff silicone shroud that I can shove deep enough on my ear canal that they can't fall out. I couldn't even get the hard plastic Apple earbuds to balance in my ear, they just fell right out.

anaganisk• 7 years ago

I have the same issue, and the only reason why i wont pickup earpods, they just fall off, have you found anyway, to keep them in?

nkrisc2• 7 years ago

For Apple's products, no, they're completely unusable to me. For earbuds I found some $15 Panasonic ones that sound alright and fit me perfectly, so I bought 6 sets of them and just go through them over the years. I think I'm on set #2 right now. I also have Sennheiser HD1 In-Ear Bluetooth earbuds that fit pretty well, too. Both products I mentioned come with different size silicone shrouds so I just found the ones that fit best and shove them into my ear canal until they're stuck. Even then it's not perfect. My right ear doesn't hold them as well as my left.

dijit• 7 years ago

Personal opinion time; Airpods are a powerful coupling with the real next big thing: The watch.

I think most of HN think of the watch as either a thing that will never happen or they think it peaked. But not only do I think that I could likely go a day without having my actual phone with me, I think this is only the beginning for that form factor.

I mean, consider that: handoff is here, and works.

Airpods mean external peripherals can be attached seamlessly.

It supports LTE and Streaming music.

The future I see, phones as they currently exist become tablets, and watches are the new phone.

john_minsk2• 7 years ago

If only apple watch faces were like apps on iPhone. Can't buy one until they do.

mark_l_watson• 7 years ago

One thing that I think is missed: AirPods are an almost have to have addition to the Apple Watch. Without an iPhone, an Apple Watch with a data plan is pretty good for text messaging (I am traveling and tonight during dinner with my Dad and brother, the woman back home who takes care of my parrot texted me and included four pictures - the pictures were easy to view on my Apple Watch), phone calls, and reading emails. You can also use Apple Wallet on the watch for airline check in images, store discount cards, etc.

With AirPods, an Apple Watch Is good for Audible books, podcasts, and music.

I used to think that it was cool to just take an iPhone on a trip and be connected. Now, an Apple Watch with AirPods can suffice. For travel the only thing missing from the Apple Watch is not being able to read eBooks which is why AirPods and Audible fill an important use case.

Voice control gets better all the time and our always carry digital device can get very small.

hyperpallium2• 7 years ago

As accessories, sales are limited to iphone numbers...

...until Airpods get an eSIM (like apple watches) and become standalone products, they'll be earphones. Ear-phones, geddit? Telephones for your ears, they'll be like... oh never mind.

tempestn2• 7 years ago

FWIW the 'phone' suffix just means relating to sound. A "tele-" phone transmits sound over distance. "ear" phones put sound in your ears. (Megaphone makes sounds loud, xylophone is a (traditionally) wood thing that makes sound, homophones sound the same, ...)

hyperpallium2• 7 years ago

I know; it's a joke, conflating two common usages of "phone".

hart_russell• 7 years ago

If apple is a public company, why are exact sales figures unknown?

tempestn2• 7 years ago

Public companies have to report their figures as a whole, but aren't required to divulge sales data on specific products if they don't want to.

Kiro• 7 years ago

Threads about wireless headphones used to be filled with comments dismissing the whole concept. Now all of a sudden it's the best thing ever. HN really is a bad predictor for trends.

untangle• 7 years ago

Airpod sales benefit from one key feature: a big replacement market. They break and get lost...a lot.

mlang23• 7 years ago

I usually don't bitch about Apple pricing, since I personally consider ROI for most Apple products pretty OK. But headphones that costs 2.5 times the price of my Apple TV? Nah, thanks. 250 for headphones is just a joke. Divide that price by 3 and I might be interested. But I am not going to pay 250 for something I use once every month or so.

hyperbovine• 7 years ago

I don’t think anyone expects you to.

mk3• 7 years ago

By using the airpods for a while, I can see it being used as communication device in tandem with siri/apple watch. It's super convenient how it integrates in Apple ecosystem even right now.

ngcc_hk• 7 years ago

Just bought one and it is good. I got the previous version and an over the head Bose cancellation one. Both have their use. (Airplane, plug in etc ) but it is portable noise cancellation. That is great.

HeavyStorm2• 7 years ago

I have an airpod since November 2018. I've never had an iPhone.

A market research is due by Apple. This is the first Apple product that is compatible outside its own ecosystem, and my guess is that this is having a very positive impact on sales. Steve old "closed ecosystem" adage might be doing more bad than good.

nicky0• 7 years ago

You probably forgot that the iPod was Windows compatible.

shmink• 7 years ago

For me, apple audio earphones in general are really uncomfortable. They're just hard plastic at the end of the day but that's just my experience. My main problem with them is with other people. The audio leaks so much they may aswell be speakers.

ojosilva• 7 years ago

Am I out of touch or are audio-first interfaces use in public spaces/work very unpopular? I rarely witness people actioning Siri/Google assistant, most of the time I guess for obvious reasons. I wonder what's the future of audio-first UIs.

Obviously that's not the case in private, at home, the car and at specialized aplications (ie medical), where audio tech is thriving.

ezzzzz2• 7 years ago

No you're correct. I personally feel silly asking Siri to do anything, but yeah. I've never successfully written a speech-to-text text-message, my brain just struggles to make it happen. Here is to hoping that brain-link stuff actually happens (not holding my breath though).

ezzzzz2• 7 years ago

This will get buried, but whatever, here are my $0.02 as an Airpods user. I have the gen 1 airpods, have had them about 1.5 years and overall, I have been pleased. Many people complain about battery life in the gen 1, I've never experienced this, but I typically only use 1 pod at a time and cycle them out when the battery gets low on one.

Pros: I think that the overall design/form-factor is the true winner. The conveniently pocketable charging case, and the ability to wear them during physical activities without falling out, without the need for annoying straps etc is a huge win. Seriously. My hobby is skateboarding, and I have taken countless falls, tons of high-impact activity, and have never once had them fall out. Being free of wires also helps this. The pairing capabilities are fine (Mac and Iphone user), but I agree with what others are saying in that other options also handle this (almost) as well. I switching from IOS to Mac to be mostly seamless, but sometimes have issues switching from Mac to IOS. The sound quality is, meh, but this is Bluetooth, if you want audiophile quality, you must look for wired.

Cons: One major gripe I have with the Airpods is that, while using 'Find-My' works great if you lost an Airpod outside the case (while paired), it does not work at all when the pods are in the case. I understand the charging case has no speaker, therefore no good way to alert, but if Apple had this feature on a new version, it might be enough to make me buy them before my current Airpods reach EOL. My second complaint, is that I feel like Apple is under-utilizing them as an input device for IOS/Mac. You have the capability of summoning siri, and skipping tracks, but you can't do both on a single pod. This design is bad UX for people like me, who typically only use 1 pod at a given time. I also think it would be nice to adjust volume with a gesture. I also get that Apple probably doesn't want to have feature overlap between Airpods and Apple watch, but I digress.

Overall, despite some gripes, I don't really see any better options at this time for what I need them to do. When my Gen 1s die, I will shell out for new ones. I hope that Apple doesn't just rest on their laurels and actually adds some new features/capabilities on subsequent releases, but I'm not holding my breath.

Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

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