Apple AirPods: iPhone accessory or the next big thing? • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by bosie » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:07 AM UTC

cosmodisk wrote: post #288

ozim wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Of course you can make money making physical things.The only problem is you either make them premium or you have to sell zillions of units to make profit. We have "Apple" in every industry ( fashion, automotive, catering,etc.), however that's still only a handful.Making software is probably more likely to earn you tons of meney.

Which companies in the fashion industry are Apple-like?

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

#332

Post by filoleg » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:08 AM UTC

yibg wrote: post #136

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…

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…

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.

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

#333

Post by lowboy » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:09 AM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #315

addicted wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

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-t…

Audio quality is only one of the metrics for comparison, including:

- form factor (my powerbeats pro case is huge compared to airpods) - handoff between different Apple devices - BT reliability/connection strength (mostly down to BT 4 vs 5) - fit and finish - noise cancellation

People weigh all of these things differently to arrive at what is "best". If a broad range of wireless buds all meet someone's threshold for acceptable audio quality, the other factors will be deciding.

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

#334

Post by Daneel_ » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:10 AM UTC

jasonshen wrote: post #248

morganvachon wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

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

Likewise. I just closed the article after that; his credibility was gone.

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

#335

Post by amatecha » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:10 AM UTC

ramses0 wrote: post #184

Fnoord wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pebble? Still no decent replacement for it.

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 w…

Don't forget also: tangible buttons for user input, so you can change music tracks without having to look at or tap on a specific spot on a touch screen! Probably the #1 thing I miss from my Pebble OG :(

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

#336

Post by doliveira » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:10 AM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #318

Grazester wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am like you but with the Android. Every time I use my wife iPhone I want to toss it across the room. I think primary because it doesn't have a dedicated back button.

> I think primary because it doesn't have a dedicated back button. Why is this an issue? Do you need dedicated back and forward buttons to browse through your pictures? Of course not, you just swipe left and right. That’s how the iPhone handles the “back” movement.

Back as in "go back to the previous screen".

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

#337

Post by remir » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:11 AM UTC

mattkevan wrote: post #200

jVinc wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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. Ev…

Sony, exept their Playstation division, are terrible at marketing. You can sense there's an old guard there that is clueless about how to market a product in this modern age.

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

#338

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:12 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #110

larrydag wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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 ve…

[deleted]

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

#339

Post by mrep » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:12 AM UTC

the_watcher wrote: post #294

adventured wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ve…

They have high margins on products that retail for multiples of their relevant competition. The same is not true for AirPods. I find it extremely unlikely that their margins are greater than 10%.

Here is an airpod knockoff for $40 [0]. I bet their margin on airpods is higher than even their iphone.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Bluetoooth-Headphones-Sweat...

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

#340

Post by bosie » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 12:12 AM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #315

addicted wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

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-t…

I think you missed parent's point, which was 'experience.