Malcolm Owen
The success of Apple's AirPods line did better than the company "could ever imagine," Apple VP of product marketing Greg Joswiak claims in a profile on the audio accessories' popularity, one that also reveals extensive resources have been put into mapping ears.
Apple's wearables division has grown to the size of a Fortune 140 company as of the April 30 quarterly results, with AirPods contributing heavily to its revenue growth. The massive success of the audio accessories have helped push the division's revenues to $6.3 billion for the quarter, up from $5.1 billion one year prior.
In a profile examining how AirPods became such a successful product, sources of Wired estimate the AirPods line contributed $7.3 billion in revenue across all of 2019, an increase of 121 percent from full-year 2018 revenues believed to be around $3.3 billion.
The initial five-minute appearance during Apple's September 2016 event caught the attention of many customers, despite the relatively short introduction. "It was almost like wildfire how quickly it spread," Greg Joswiak said. "It's done even better than we could ever imagine."
On the subject of their cordless construction, Joswiak claims Apple "had a vision for our wireless future for many years" ahead of the creation of AirPods. "We had this incredible wireless product, the iPhone, and yet what began to feel odd is when you saw somebody using wired headphones. Right then you thought, why would to attach the wire?"
The report touches upon Apple's continuation of research it performed with Stanford University to improve the fit of its existing earphones for EarPods. Following that product's launch, Apple continued its research, mapping ears to create a more accurate model for the AirPods Pro.
"We had done work with Stanford to 3D-scan hundreds of different ears and ear styles and shapes in order to make a design that would work as a one-size solution across a broad set of the population," Joswiak admitted. "With AirPods Pro, we took that research further - studied more ears, more ear types. And that enabled us to develop a design that, along with the three different top sizes, works across an overwhelming percentage of the worldwide population."
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27 Comments
I thought my original APs were great, and then I got the APP for my birthday, really enjoying them as well. Our bedroom has an AC air-intake as well as a white noise machine, and when I watch a show in bed w/ the APP the noise cancelation renders them silent, allowing me to keep the volume lower, which is better for hearing. I still use my APs too tho, on walks and whatnot where I want to hear my surroundings too.
I've noticed in the age of corona virus home-broadcasting, that many correspondents are using APP as their mic & earpiece.
If you research, AirPods are Apples 2nd most successful product in Apple's history.But Apple died with Steve Jobs, Apple isn't innovative anymore and fire Cook. etc. etc.
And all that 'ear shape' research will be stolen by Chinese knock off companies that will sell a version for $29.
AirPods were a godsend to me. I had gone through multiple wireless headsets over the years with either them breaking down or the battery dying. Even when I found a robust pair (Jaybirds) the sound was never perfect since the fit was always hard to get right. The sound I get in the standard AP is very close to what I would expect from regular sound systems and very consistent.
The charging case was a brilliant idea and ensures that the AP are always charged. I don't know how many times I had gone for a run in the past only for the sound to die because I had forgotten to charge the headset. My original V1 AP are still working though the batteries only last for an hour now.
I will probably buy the AirPod Pros in the next few months and the noise cancelling feature will be useful when flying. I currently use Bose headphones when flying but they are bulky.
I've never even tried the regular Air Pods before, but I'm liking my AirPods Pro in the few months since I've been using them.
Sometimes I don't even listen to music on them. I can be walking outside, and I'll just have them in my ears with zero music and with the noise cancellation on. It works really well for filtering out all sorts of sounds from outside world. It's like my own personal mute button, and I can instantly turn the volume down on anything, whenever I feel like it. It's also real quick to turn that feature on and off when necessary. Of course, somebody should always be aware of their surroundings, especially when using them outside.
I haven't tried them on a plane yet, as there hasn't been that much travel happening recently, for obvious reasons, but I imagine that they'll work very nicely there too for filtering out the plane noise.
They also work really well for filtering out any annoying people. I was standing in a line recently, and I really wasn't interested in listening to the low IQ conversation that a few people standing next to me were having, plus one of the people had a really annoying sounding voice, so I merely squeeze my AirPod stem and presto! That person is muted, as if they don't even exist! It's like blocking somebody on a forum, except you can do it in real life.