Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

kevinrooke.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 696 posts

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#211

Post by megous »

satysin wrote: post #148
eanzenberg wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://support.apple.com/airpods/repair/service To replace the batteries: $50 each airpod, $50 for the charging case

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.

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.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#213

Post by MBCook »

fizixer wrote: post #71

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!

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.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#215

Post by swozey »

rkuykendall-com wrote: post #197
gz5 wrote: post #40

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 itsel…

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.

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).

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#216

Post by gdulli »

sadmann1 wrote: post #3

Are airpods really worth it or is it just marketing

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.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#217

Post by morganvachon »

paxys wrote: post #21

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 neve…

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).

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#218

Post by kristianc »

jedberg wrote: post #163
kristianc wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

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.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#219

Post by LaGrange »

013a wrote: post #170
paxys wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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).

> "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.

Re: Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing?

#220

Post by eddiecalzone »

Vysero wrote: post #167

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?

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.

Post reply on HN