[HN Gopher] Airpods make more money than Spotify, Twitter, Snapc...
___________________________________________________________________
Airpods make more money than Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat, and
Shopify combined
Author : 123six
Score : 291 points
Date : 2020-01-07 21:42 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.kevinrooke.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.kevinrooke.com)
| cbhl wrote:
| I wonder how much of this revenue comes from people who lose
| their Airpods and then have to replace them?
| russell_h wrote:
| I was at Costco a while ago and overheard a conversation between
| some kind of store manager of 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.
| fizixer wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| AirPods Pro do--"transparency" mode--but you can't control the
| amount of mixing.
| Psyonic wrote:
| Airpods Pro do. Along with noise cancelling that's the main
| improvement.
| MBCook wrote:
| 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.
| brundolf wrote:
| All AirPods have dual microphones (one in each ear). AirPods
| Pro let you toggle between noise cancelling and active ambient
| mixing.
| madrox wrote:
| 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.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _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_explore wrote:
| 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.
| hellllllllooo wrote:
| 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?
| MBCook wrote:
| 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.
| LegitShady wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Are airpods really worth it or is it just marketing
| sevencolors wrote:
| 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.
| quxbar wrote:
| 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.
| crooked-v wrote:
| > 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.
| umanwizard wrote:
| They are worth it for me, but it depends on what you want in a
| headphone, and your mileage may vary.
| Operyl wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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).
| gdulli wrote:
| 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.
| joshmn wrote:
| I hated them until I tried them. Their integration within
| Apple's ecosystem is killer.
| gav wrote:
| 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.
| Fnoord wrote:
| Are they worth it if your setup is a MBP plus an Android
| smartphone?
| MBCook wrote:
| They can pair with an Android phone, but I don't know if
| you get the great connection/pausing related features or
| not.
| themagician wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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-dev wrote:
| 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.
| umanwizard wrote:
| > create a problem and a solution at the same
|
| "Wires are annoying" and "other Bluetooth headphones suck" were
| not problems created by Apple.
| rooam-dev wrote:
| 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.
| fetus8 wrote:
| Press release from AirPod's launch: "Apple Invents bluetooth
| headphones and charging accessory!"
|
| /s
|
| Everyone in my friend's circle has purchased their own pair
| after trying someone elses. I know one person who bought a pair
| of the gen1 version, and recieved Airpod's Pro as a gift.
| mikece wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| > 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.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _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._
|
| 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.
| typon wrote:
| 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.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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
| typon wrote:
| 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
| ericjang wrote:
| If you believe that Tesla as a company is a reasonable
| capital allocator, and that the Cybertruck will end up
| being a flop, then you should expect that investing in
| Tesla will mean investing in the successful segments (Model
| Y per your prediction) and quickly divesting from the
| unsuccessful ones (Cybertruck per your prediction).
|
| The same goes for Apple and Airpods.
| Fnoord wrote:
| Tesla Cybertruck as it currently stands _will_ flop in
| Europe, as the design is unsafe.
| capableweb wrote:
| 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 :)
| reaperducer wrote:
| _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.
| gmaster1440 wrote:
| 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.
| 123six wrote:
| 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.
| psv1 wrote:
| And even if they accomplished it, they wouldn't come even
| remotely close to being as financially successful with the same
| product.
| yjhoney wrote:
| 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.
| krick wrote:
| Why though? I don't know anything about AirPods Pro, but previous
| models were quite mediocre product compared to competition.
| mfer wrote:
| They're easy to loose! You have to keep buying more
| signalremotefac wrote:
| 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.
| justinzollars wrote:
| Dear god. That's impressive.
| [deleted]
| Vysero wrote:
| 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?
| MBCook wrote:
| 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.
| velosol wrote:
| 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
| eddiecalzone wrote:
| 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.
| jackhalford wrote:
| 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...
| privateSFacct wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| cycrutchfield wrote:
| As opposed to the phone itself?
| inetknght wrote:
| Once upon a day, phones had replaceable batteries. I'm still
| holding on to my ancient phone specifically because of that.
| wiredfool wrote:
| Quite a few of the replaceable battery devices I've had
| over the years got old, and then I had to be careful to not
| flex them badly, or the battery would momentarily
| disconnect and drop the power. Or you loose the battery
| cover, or the little plastic tab breaks and now it's held
| on with tape or a rubber band.
| satya71 wrote:
| The phone battery is hard to replace, not impossible.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Most phones are 10 minutes to replace the battery, or 30
| mins if you've never done it before.
|
| I think that's about the right tradeoff for something that
| will be done once every 2 years.
| skyyler wrote:
| That doesn't differ from their other offerings...
|
| Their laptops and phones do not have replaceable batteries, why
| would their headphones?
| fermenflo wrote:
| Except their laptops and phones totally do...
|
| What are you talking about?
| skyyler wrote:
| Every iPhone since the 8 has had a strip of glue holding
| the battery down. They aren't intended to be serviced,
| especially not by users.
| wiredfool wrote:
| 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.
| read_if_gay_ wrote:
| Then it's just a matter of what you think is easy enough to
| be called replaceable. I would wager for most consumers a
| MacBook battery is not in that category.
| mendelmaleh wrote:
| There are repair shops for 'most consumers'. They do
| great work, but even they can't fix an Airpod.
| zakki wrote:
| That most consumers will come to Apple with their laptop
| for a service and Genius will replace the battery. Will
| genius replace the battery for their AirPods?
| crooked-v wrote:
| Yes (though in practice, they're probably just swapping
| the unit and sending the original back to be
| refurbished).
| https://support.apple.com/airpods/repair/service
| sosborn wrote:
| Those batteries are replaceable, just not by you (officially
| anyway).
| skyyler wrote:
| And for $49 each, Apple will replace the batteries in your
| airpods. (they probably just replace them)
|
| If they aren't replaceable by you, they aren't replaceable.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| The batteries are not replaceable, at all.
|
| > An update to Monday's report: Apple has confirmed that
| the new AirPods Pro are no more repairable than previous
| versions of the wireless earbuds. The pods are made partly
| with recyclable materials but due to size and build process
| (i.e glue) it doesn't repair. Just replace.
|
| https://twitter.com/LaurenGoode/status/1189663651214450688
| c0nducktr wrote:
| I believe they were referring to the batteries in their
| other products, not the airpods.
| mintocean wrote:
| 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.
| eanzenberg wrote:
| Or, you can pay to replace the battery. I've done it with an
| old iPhone6 and got back a pretty usable device.
| fredifrum wrote:
| battery replacements aren't a thing for AirPods. You can send
| them to Apple to be recycled, though.
| eanzenberg wrote:
| https://support.apple.com/airpods/repair/service
|
| To replace the batteries: $50 each airpod, $50 for the
| charging case
| satysin wrote:
| Done this myself. They don't replace the battery but send
| you a new AirPod or charging case.
|
| My understanding is that opening an AirPod without
| damaging the plastic casing is close to impossible to do.
|
| My guess would be they replace them then strip the
| components out of your returned AirPod or charging case
| and recycle/reuse what they can.
| megous wrote:
| BOM looks like <$10 (there's barely anything inside).
| Maybe $15 with those small batteries. I doubt it's
| economical to recycle. What's fascinating is that people
| are willing to pay so much over the BOM. But I guess
| that's Apple speciality making people do it.
| mendelmaleh wrote:
| I'd bet they just give you a new one.
| neighbour wrote:
| 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.
| barkingcat wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Apple products have really long life span compared to the
| alternatives, actually. That's why their products have very
| good re-sell value. Nothing degraded, 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?
| themagician wrote:
| 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_explore wrote:
| 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...
| paxys wrote:
| 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.
| morganvachon wrote:
| 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).
| 123six wrote:
| Also, sources are updated in the article. Thanks for mentioning
| the lack of links.
| 123six wrote:
| 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.
| paxys wrote:
| 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.
|
| - 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, Instax Camera, Roku, Ring,
| Tile, Duracell AA Battery, GoPro etc.
| ozim wrote:
| 1) I don't know the estimates but I see it on the streets.
| Everyone and their dog has AirPods. I already have seen
| people with Pro version as well. I do not see people
| walking with their GoPros. If I go skiing I don't see
| people with their GoPro (people mostly just go skiing and
| then do some pictures with their phones from what I
| noticed), Chromecast I have seen some but not as many.
| There is no comparison.
|
| 2) There is one interesting thing. Everyone would say "make
| software" because it is easily scalable and you want
| scalable business. You don't want to make physical things,
| because making business on physical things is not scalable.
| Now Apple is showing that making physical things makes
| loads of money if you are Apple. So still making physical
| things can make more money than making SaaS.
| hailwren wrote:
| It's already a meme on college campuses that you aren't
| cool if you still have the 'long stems'. I'd say pros are
| doing well.
| paxys wrote:
| "If you are Apple" is the key part of it. A software
| company can be successful with a bunch of programmers and
| their laptops. That describes all the startups on the
| list. To emulate AirPods' success you need:
|
| - a chip design/fabrication team
|
| - a battery design team
|
| - high-volume vendor contracts in Asia and assembly lines
| ready to go at moment's notice
|
| - a logistics, operations and distribution pipeline in
| every market in the world
|
| - the most successful product in the world (iPhone) which
| you can attach your sales to
|
| - billions in marketing and advertising budgets
|
| - premium retail locations across the world
|
| AirPods are NOT a startup, and should not be compared to
| other startups. "Make software" is definitely still good
| advice for the _vast_ majority of entrepreneurs out
| there.
| jiofih wrote:
| The difference between 9 and 12 billion matters absolutely
| nil for the main point of the piece. Seems like you just
| feel the need to somehow dismiss it? Why?
| 013a wrote:
| I would find an estimate like "AirPods make more money than
| Spotify" interesting; its a sort-of poetic "the hardware
| you use to listen to the music is worth more than the music
| itself", at least in a limited scope (of course, the entire
| audio hardware industry is larger than Spotify, but is the
| entire audio hareware industry larger than the entire music
| recording industry? idk).
| LaGrange wrote:
| > "the hardware you use to listen to the music is worth
| more than the music itself"
|
| ...at which point it's reasonable to maybe stop
| conflating price with value.
| larrydag wrote:
| Also this is revenue numbers too. No mention of margins over
| expenses.
| adventured wrote:
| 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.
| malloreon wrote:
| >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.
| Kylekramer wrote:
| 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.
| askmike wrote:
| 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.
| Kylekramer wrote:
| 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.
| taurath wrote:
| 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.
| read_if_gay_ wrote:
| > 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.)
| mrguyorama wrote:
| Chromecast is $35 and will play spotify and other apps pretty
| darn well.
| rurp wrote:
| Three or four years ago I loved my Chromecasts, but it's
| crazy how much worse they have gotten in that time. They
| used to have a really simple setup and then "just worked"
| from there. Now though, they regularly disappear from every
| device we use them with in my household and have to be
| setup again. The setup flow has changed several times over
| the past few years, always for the worse. Once everything
| is (re-)setup, they still fail to connect or lose a
| connection often enough to be a big annoyance.
|
| I'm not a fan of smart tv apps for all of the reasons
| discussed on HN, but they work so much better for me than
| Chromecast I've started using those instead whenever
| possible.
| nathancahill wrote:
| They did a recent promo with Google where you get a free
| Google Home Mini if you're a subscriber. So I don't think
| they are getting in to hardware.
| ObsoleteNerd wrote:
| Google does these promotions all over, to get more Home's
| into... homes.
|
| We got a free one with our YouTube Premium subscription,
| another free one with our Spotify Family Plan, and
| another free one from our ISP (though I'm not sure if
| that was paid for by google or the ISP).
| taurath wrote:
| They have such economies of scale now, and such vertical
| integration that they can sell you things like speakers
| for free as long as it has voice integration and sucks up
| all of your data.
|
| The only reason they don't sell a TV for $200 is they
| already get all that data from the current TV providers.
| Chromebooks at $99? Sure, why not.
|
| And eventually nobody can compete. Users must be in
| google, or amazons ecosystem or be super rich to avoid
| it. Companies must hope that google or amazon never move
| into their space because they can be obliterated. This is
| a "kinder" version of what microsoft got anti-trusted for
| in the 90s.
| brundolf wrote:
| 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.
| just_myles wrote:
| 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 ?
| dsalzman wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| >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?
| abtinf wrote:
| It has the option to backup to iCloud with end-to-end
| encryption.
| reaperducer wrote:
| 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.
| rgbrenner wrote:
| Correct... it's backed up to iCloud or on your computer
| with itunes if you encrypt it.
| genS3 wrote:
| > Always in ear Airpods
|
| stopped reading there.
| memetomancer wrote:
| > stopped reading there.
|
| says much more about your limitations than about airpods...
|
| ever heard of hearing aids?
| aguyfromnb wrote:
| Yes, and people hate them, but there are no alternatives.
| Why would you want something permanently in your ear to
| measure heart rate?
| [deleted]
| chrisseaton wrote:
| How do you know this to be true?
| qsymmachus wrote:
| > Always in ear
|
| What percentage of Airpods owners do you reckon _always_ have
| them inside their ears?
| maximente wrote:
| probably pretty high - apparently 17% of people in one survey
| said they have left them in during sex, so there's that
| samschooler wrote:
| Primary source for the 17% number (although dubious
| considering it was 1,010 people online via Amazon's
| Mechanical Turk, and to qualify participants were required
| to be sexually active and enjoy listening to music):
|
| https://www.tickpick.com/musics-influence-on-sexual-
| behavior...
| jonny_eh wrote:
| You need to take them out every 2-4 hours for charging.
| joezydeco wrote:
| I've noticed a lot of people wearing just one, my kids
| included. They explained to me that by alternating
| earbuds they can wear them almost continually.
| speleo wrote:
| I'm going to need sauce on that.
| crubier wrote:
| Wtf aha, citation needed!
| madeofpalk wrote:
| > 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.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| 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.
| nathancahill wrote:
| One of the first reviewers of the Macbook Air lost it in a
| stack of newspapers.
| notimetorelax wrote:
| 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.
| brundolf wrote:
| 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.
| tbrock wrote:
| Live a little! Nobody would buy anything nice if they were
| constantly worried about it.
| calvinmorrison wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| lordnacho wrote:
| 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.
| MBCook wrote:
| 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.
| brundolf wrote:
| 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.
| mark-r wrote:
| And now we discover why Apple removed the traditional headphone
| jack - and why it's never coming back.
| gz5 wrote:
| 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.
| f1refly wrote:
| >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.
| reaperducer wrote:
| When you talk to people, you're supposed to look at their
| eyes, not their ears.
| [deleted]
| f1refly wrote:
| You don't have to talk to someone to judge his looks
| simias wrote:
| 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-v wrote:
| As somebody who really likes Airpods, I think they look
| ridiculous, but they work so darn well that the looks are
| totally irrelvant.
| ghaff wrote:
| The cell phone Bluetooth headsets produced plenty of
| eyerolls when they were the thing a number of years back
| too. Probably for similar reasons--you never know when I
| may get a phone call that's more important than you.
|
| Personally, I don't wear these sorts of things in public
| but that's mostly because I hate being isolated from even
| relatively benign environments.
| eanzenberg wrote:
| 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.
| kristianc wrote:
| 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?
| cromwellian wrote:
| It's simple to explain in the same way that Apple even in
| the 90s made the most profit of any personal computer
| manufacturer even though PCs clearly had superior hardware
| and much more software.
|
| The answer is monopoly pricing vs competition. Apple is the
| only iOS manufacturer, just like they were the only MacOS
| Manufacturer (excepting the brief period of Mac clones)
|
| That means all Android manufacturers compete and split
| their market driving down prices and margins and divvying
| up market share.
|
| You saw the same thing in PCs when they were almost sold at
| cost or razor thin margins because they were commodified: a
| pc from dell vs hp vs compaq vs gazillion other vendors was
| basically the same experience.
| stefanfisk wrote:
| crush is a strong word here, which Android phones would
| that be referring to? I got bored after they released the
| X, but at least up to and including that generation iPhones
| dominated benchmarks while at least being top 3 in photo
| quality.
| jedberg wrote:
| At this point no matter how amazing the Android is, I would
| find the iPhone easier. I've been using an iPhone for so
| long it's just second nature. At one point I was forced to
| use an Android for a month. I could just never get used to
| the interface.
| kristianc wrote:
| You find the iPhone easy to use because the iPhone is
| easy to use and more or less consistent in every iPhone
| device you've used. A five year old can use an iPhone.
|
| That's competitive differentiation, which is very much
| part of marketing. An iPhone isn't easy to use in the
| same way that git is easier to use than svn for someone
| who has been using git for a decade.
| factotvm wrote:
| No one is crushing anyone in the phone market. They leap
| frog each other from time to time, but to the average
| consumer there is little difference between the flagship
| phones.
| aianus wrote:
| Beats invented the first cool bluetooth headset.
| Ericson2314 wrote:
| Great point. Furthermore, how much have AirBuds eaten into
| Beats sales? Is this more revenue for Apple or just shifting
| the exact product.
| thr483900 wrote:
| Who?
| Aromasin wrote:
| 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.
| ouid wrote:
| WHY ARE AIRPODS POPULAR?!?!??!
| [deleted]
| spullara wrote:
| You missed the first cool smart watch.
| penagwin wrote:
| Pebble?
| Fnoord wrote:
| > 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.
| rkuykendall-com wrote:
| 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.
| welly wrote:
| .. 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.
| Fnoord wrote:
| 1) Honestly, they look ugly (like toothbrushes), just like
| the white iPhone looked ugly.
|
| 2) There's a lot of copy cats who look akin to Apple
| Airpods because Apple is a premium brand.
| tvararu wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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...)
| davinic wrote:
| I've wondered if Sony's music ownership interests played a
| large role in losing that market due to their fear of piracy.
| gumby wrote:
| > 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 wrote:
| 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.
| alfonsodev wrote:
| When did Sony stop naming things the simple way (Walkman,
| Vaio...) and started naming stuff like that (WF-100MX3 and
| the like). Im saying this as half joke only :D
| jdfellow wrote:
| No doubt that Sony becoming a major media company has hurt
| their consumer electronics business.
| jVinc wrote:
| 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.
| mattkevan wrote:
| I didn't understand Sony's strategy back when the iPod was
| big and I still don't now.
|
| At roughly the same time I got an iPod, and an Apple-hating
| housemate bought a Sony MP3 player with a name only a
| barcode scanner could love. Also it couldn't play MP3s,
| instead a weird proprietary format that didn't work
| anywhere else. Songs had to be converted using their crappy
| software.
|
| He swapped it for an iPod within weeks.
|
| Even now, the conversation is 'what are those?', 'oh,
| they're AirPods'. Compared to 'what are those?', 'oh,
| they're Sony WC-31... err, Sony headphone things.
|
| Good work guys.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| > didn't bring out a walkman phone
|
| They actually did, the Sony Ericsson W800. But if you
| didn't know about that, it kinda proves your point, the
| branding wasn't a resounding success.
| lowdose wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| kristianc wrote:
| > 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 wrote:
| 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.
| kristianc wrote:
| Apple had DRM on iTunes with FairPlay and AAC for around
| six years until the courts forced them to remove it. iTunes
| was still a huge business for them at the time. Sure that
| DRM was the real issue?
|
| Likewise, claiming that the Root Kit business (by which
| time the iPod had been around for a good 5 years) sunk
| Sony's business seems like a bit of a reach.
| samatman wrote:
| During that same era, Apple's slogan for the iPod was,
| notoriously: "Rip. Mix. Burn."
|
| They were the first company to crack the nut of digital
| music sales, and getting those deals with the recording
| industry absolutely required DRM at the time.
| wuunderbar wrote:
| Don't forget about first cool smartwatch.
| NetOpWibby wrote:
| Dick Tracy, eat your heart out!
| Fnoord wrote:
| The Pebble? Still no decent replacement for it.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| I loved my Pebble, but it was certainly not cool. Also
| didn't work as well as my Apple Watch, which I waited until
| my beloved Pebble finally died before buying.
| Fnoord wrote:
| Apple Watch is 4+ times the price. It still can't do some
| of the things a Pebble can. For starters, a Pebble can
| run a week without requiring recharge.
| ramses0 wrote:
| 1) always-on, sunlight-visible screen 2) week-long (plus)
| battery life 3) good, simple notification + calendar
| support 4) ecosystem of apps (developer mindshare)
|
| Heart Rate, Sleep Tracking, Mic/Phone, Payments are all
| wonderful, but the drawbacks of "machine-learning-shake-to-
| wake", one-day battery life, and trying to fiddle with a
| tiny touch screen make the Apple watch less of a watch and
| more of "everything but a watch".
|
| Long Live Pebble / Rest in Peace.
| yibg wrote:
| 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.
| rkuykendall-com wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| There's plenty of AirPods competitors on the market now with
| easily recognizable names. I'm a proud Samsung Galaxy Buds
| user myself.
| swozey wrote:
| Jabra Elite 65ts (which I own and don't like using,
| uncomfortable, 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, these don't
| have ANC).
| freepor wrote:
| 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.
| pascalxus wrote:
| 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?
| rolltiide wrote:
| 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.
| johnmaguire2013 wrote:
| 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.
| aduitsis wrote:
| Can Android today handle voice dialing non-English names in
| the address book? If not, their hands-free story leaves a
| lot to be desired as well.
| projektfu wrote:
| Yes, with phonetic names, an optional field like the
| pronunciation name in iOS.
| ryanmcbride wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| >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).
| brundolf wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Now I can't wait for Apple glass - fashion forward enhance eye
| glasses
| zyang wrote:
| It's incredible these tiny earbuds generate more than half the
| revenue of Tesla.
| mastazi wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| downerending wrote:
| 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.)
| eddiecalzone wrote:
| Interesting! Do foam earplugs work for you (expanding in the
| ear)? If so, Comply makes foam tips to fit various models of
| earbuds.
| velosol wrote:
| 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?
| fancyfish wrote:
| 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.
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