From Criticism To Popularity: The Success Story Of Apple’s AirPods

Introduced in September of 2016 by Apples, alongside their Apple Watch Series 2 and iPhone 7, AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds which allow its users to enjoy music and relay phone calls.

If we look back slightly more than a decade at the history of Apple, the introduction of iPhone made a huge impact on the tech landscape at that time. The iPhone was very different from the cell phones available on the market at that time, offering solutions to the UI/UX problems inherent in them, and overall marking a new page in tech history in the minds of many.

Since then, Apple has been releasing consistent, quality products, but many feel that nothing made as big of an impact as the iPhone did back in the day. While people still appreciate the beauty and sophistication of their products, an opinion going around is that none of the products released since marked a global shift in the world of technology.

Enter the AirPods

Introduced in September of 2016 and released to be ordered online that year in December, AirPods feature the proprietary Apple W1 SoC, and they can automatically sync to the iCloud service, thus allowing users to switch audio sources to other devices connected by the same Apple ID. AirPods also have support for Siri, or they can function as regular Bluetooth headphones when they are connected to a device which supports Bluetooth 4.0.

If compared to the original iPhone, many people believe that what made it revolutionary is similar to what makes AirPods revolutionary. Simply put, the iPhone was ahead of its competition, seeming like a revolutionary piece of technology compared to the cell phones and smartphones of that time. Similarly, the AirPods are also perceived by some to be ahead of other wired and wireless earbuds. While the ramifications are not the same, given the fact that the iPhone was a rich gadget and not an accessory, their paths to success are compared by some people.

Criticism and Ridicule

While certain apple products have been criticized in the past as well, few of them suffered the same ridicule that AirPods had to endure. The wireless earbuds became an online joke, with criticism ranging from their appearance to the idea that they would be easy to lose — perhaps the criticism of being easy to lose could be couple with the fact that the AirPods come with the $159 price tag.

Comparing the AirPods to regular EarPods, the feeling was that while the EarPods have a tendency to slip out, having a cord helped not lose them. On the other hand, AirPods seemed anti-user, with the belief being that it would be easy to lose one of them and never find it again — meaning the user would instantly lose approximately $80. However, people also found out that the product is weighted in such a way that it’s difficult for the earbuds to dislodge from the ear. What this means is that, the product is not actually succeeding in spite of itself, but that many people were surprised by it and liked it more than expected.

Charging Case Providing “Infinite” Battery Life

The case that the AirPods come with is made of glossy white plastic, which has a premium feel to it. The case received such care due to the fact that it acts not only as a protector but also as a charging case, charging up the AirPods from its 24 hour battery. While by themselves, the AirPods have a 5 hour battery life, due to its relationship with the charging case, they can be charged every time they’re not in use, which in turn means that typically users will never find their AirPods depleted of battery life.

The W1 chip allows for the AirPods to have 5 hours of battery life, and the charging case communicates with the Apple Watch or iPhone easily, recharging the AirPods while they sit inside the charging pocket — the fact that the charging case fits in the pocket is also a benefit when it comes to keeping the AirPods constantly charged.

This idea of having “infinite” battery is useful when it comes to wireless earbuds, due to the fact that most likely users don’t want to worry about how much battery they have left on their AirPods and how long is it going to last. Overall, this manages to solve a friction point for probably a lot of users.

Easy To Set Up

When it comes to setting them up, many users believe that the AirPods surpass regular Bluetooth headphones as far as plugging them in goes. Bluetooth headphones could end up requiring a lot of fidgeting before they can be finally used — consulting the manual, false starts, pressing a series of buttons, looking through its settings, etc. Moreover, if people want their Bluetooth headphones connected to another device, the process has to be repeated all over again. In comparison, AirPods need to be flicked open, the iOS device that is close by will ask for permission to connect, one “OK” later and the AirPods are coupled with all devices. If users want to switch the device that the AirPods are paired with, the earbuds will figure that out based on which device is the closes — if not, this can easily be done from the AirPlay menu. In addition, despite the Apple branding, they also work with regular Android devices.

Intuitive

When it’s time to actually use the AirPods, they can easily be popped into the user’s ears and used “as-is”. There are no buttons to push, and they perform their functions automatically, making them very intuitive overall. For example: when they are taken out, the audio would stop automatically, and resume once they are placed back in; If only one of the earbud is taken out, the audio gets remixed for mono sound; in order for the user to talk to Siri, a simple double tap on one of the earphones is necessary.

Success Story

They can easily be dismissed as “overpriced”, however, after more than two years, the price tag does not seem a hindrance to the Apple product, having sold millions of units already. In addition, Tim Bajarin, the president of Creative Strategies, Inc. and a long time Apple analyst noted that the accessory is vital to Apple’s future. Bajarin stated that voice is a new part when it comes to the man-to-machine interface. He pointed out that receiving info on demand via a headset which is tied to services is an important part of what will be the future AR strategy of Apple.

Not only has the price not been a hindrance, but months after their release, people still had to wait around weeks in order to buy the AirPods directly from Apple — approximately six weeks of waiting, which is an amount of time not heard of since the launch of the original iPhone. Comparatively, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro had a waiting time of around a week, one month after its release. What this means is that AirPods were, in fact in big demand.

Driving Force

In fact, during an earnings call, the Chief Executive Officer of Apple, Tim Cook, highlighted the fact that the AirPods are a runaway hit, and the company is working hard in order to meet the incredible demand. This means that while ridiculed at first, people warmed up to the AirPods. Moreover, they can be considered a complete success from a financial standpoint, due to the fact that AirPods sales ended up helping drive the wearable segment of the company (which includes Apples Watch and Beats).

In an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Tim Cook talked about how the success of Apple in the wearables category has been driven almost entirely by AirPods and the Apple Watch, adding that growth has been unprecedented. Moreover, he stated that if AirPods and the Apple Watch are taken separately and aligned with the launch date of iPod, it would show that every one, independently, is approximately 4 to 6 time ahead of where the iPod has been at a comparable period of time.

Annette Zimmermann, who is an analyst at Garner noted that Apple’s main strategy is to be a company responsible with product development. What this means is that they want to drive growth by introducing new products, which in turn clears up the picture as to why AirPods are important, since they were well received.

The Future of AirPods

The updates that the AirPods could result in supercharge sales, according to some experts. While the company never broke out unit sales for the product, according to a Ming-Chi Kuo (TF International Securities) report, the number of units sold in 2018 was approximately 16 million. Moreover, Kuo predicts that the number of sales will rise to about 100 million by the year 2021.Kuo stated that there is a greater likelihood, when it comes to legacy iPhone users, of buying AirPods rather than upgrading to the new models of iPhone.

Rumors

The amount of interest in AirPods is comparable to that of more feature-rich and stand-alone products such as the iPhone, rather than an audio accessory. Rumor about updates for the AirPods talked about color options, component enhancement, and new features. Plenty of people anticipate that AirPods 2 will receive the W3 wireless chip that arrived as part of the Apple Watch Series 4. Bluetooth 5 support is also expected, which should be able to deliver significant improvement when it comes to power consumption and speed.

If the AirPods will receive health technology as well, then they will be placed into the more life-essential category, similarly to the Apple Watch. When the Series 4 was introduced, the Apple Watch was able to monitor the body for a damaging fall and keep tabs on hearts and run a single-line electrocardiogram. If the AirPods get heart rate monitoring capabilities then they might get perceived as more serious products.

The AirPods remained unchanged since their introduction, with many people assuming that 2019 is the year when the big update will take place. Besides health technology, other questions about future update are whether or not AirPods 2 will come with a form of adapters — such as silicon bits for people that have ears shaped different — or noise cancellation capabilities. While iPhone sales and excitement has been diminishing recently, customers and Apple have paid great attention to both the AirPods and the Apple Watch. Whether we’re talking about the W1 chip and AirPods’ built-in sensors, or the easy-to-use technology, Apple managed to release a popular pair of earbuds that many believe to mark a new page in the history of technology.