AirPods, captured with iPhone 7 Plus 2x lens
Posted on 12/21/2016 7:40:56 PM PST by Swordmaker
Delivering hours of enveloping, untethered sound and Siri assistance, Apple's new wireless AirPods elegantly perform in a way that promises to put a smile on your face no matter how terrible of a day you're having--a beautiful thing given how many ugly days 2016 has thrown at us so far.
AirPods are a bicycle for your ears
Walking down the street with AirPods in, a smile consistently crept across my face. Not having wires is a bigger deal than I'd imagined. It's the same feeling I got from an iPod back in the day: having a personal soundtrack that begs you to dance at least a little bit while you're walking.
Without wires, the small, light AirPods don't have anything to tug or tangle, allowing you to forget you're even wearing them. They feel like a plugged-in enhancement that becomes part of your body itself, like effortlessly riding down a mountain on a snowboard or flying down a newly paved highway on a motorcycle, where you only occasionally need to make an intuitive gesture to maintain your superhuman experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at appleinsider.com ...
The latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword "ApplePingList" on FreeRepublic's Search.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me
I just want to say about the writer... What a *****. A smile crept all across his face, that’s just creepy. And all the terrible days in 2016, I think he must be talking about November 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, need I go on? All the way to the last day of the year! Be of good cheer! But his earphones are letting him retreat into a safe space where he will never hear that car that hits him, or the mugger that sneaks up behind him.
Apple's Airpods Could Be A Bigger Business Than Apple WatchOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Trefis Team, ContributorApple‘s wireless headphones, Airpods, went on sale earlier this week. The buzz surrounding the launch was limited, given that the product was delayed for close to two months leading to significant inventory constraints. However, we believe that there is a possibility that the Airpods could overtake Apple’s high-profile wearable product, the Apple Watch, in terms of overall revenues and profitability in the long-run. Below, we size up the revenue potential of the Airpods and compare it to the Apple Watch.
We have a $125 price estimate for Apple, which is slightly ahead of the current market price.
Deep Integration With The Ecosystem Makes For An Easy Cross Sell
Airpods enable users to listen to music or phone calls wirelessly, much like other Bluetooth headphones in the market, while also providing deeper integration with Apple’s product ecosystem. For instance, the headphones offer a seamless pairing process with Apple’s iDevices, the ability to access Apple’s digital assistant Siri, and provide longer wireless range and battery life when paired with Apple devices. Apple’s ecosystem effect and the large base of affluent iPhone users could provide a sizable target market for the Airpods. Moreover, the relatively accessible $159 price tag and Apple’s wide distribution footprint should make Airpods fairly easy to cross-sell to iPhone customers, who typically pay upwards of $650 for their smartphones.
Estimating The Revenue Opportunity
While Apple is unlikely to disclose sales figures, we believe that it should be able to ship roughly 22 million Airpods in the first year, assuming an attach rate of 10% with the iPhone. We believe this figure is reasonable, as Barclays projects initial production figures at 10 to 15 million units. Assuming an ASP of $159, this would translate into revenues of roughly $3.5 billion in 2017.
In comparison, IDC estimates that Apple shipped just about 4.2 million units of the Apple Watch during the first nine months of this year. Assuming that Apple ships about 8 million units over 2017, at an ASP of around $350, it would translate to Watch revenues of ~$2.8 billion.
It is possible that margins for Airpods could be higher as well over the long-run as Apple irons out early manufacturing yield issues, given the lower component and software development-related costs compared to the Watch. This could mean that the Airpods will be more value-accretive to Apple stock compared to the Apple Watch.
I predict that Apple will be smiling all the way to the bank as it sells replacement airpods.
The Airpods will warn you when one goes missing, so hopefully you’ll go back and pick it up from where you dropped it. I’d say its vital to keep them in their case at all times, not like I do with my earbuds coiled up in my pocket. I’m still plenty happy with my iPhone 6 Plus and have no intention of upgrading until I have a reason to.
It’s alright to talk to yourself.
It’s even alright to answer.
As long as you don’t say “what?”
I would lose them in about 10 seconds...
The future's so bright, I gotta wear APPLEBUDS.
Wouldn’t it be great if they could maybe implant them somehow so we wouldn’t have to worry about losing them. 24/7 connectivity is the way to go!
“I would lose them in about 10 seconds...”
Me too. My right ear keeps having the current wired buds fall out. I assume the same would be true for these.
He probably hated Brexit too.
That thing looks like something a woman would use for a non-audio for of pleasure.
“Hey brother left AirPod. . . .”
My son bought a pair and I tried them out yesterday. The no-wires thing makes them quite comfortable and the fidelity is pretty amazing.
Apple fanatics are delusional it is just how they are. In the end of the day, it is just over priced electronic junk stamped out in the slums of Beijing.
The Airpod’s shape is same as their previous wired EarPods. When I bought my I Phone 5, it came with those EarPods and due to the shape of my inner ear, they simply will NOT stay in my ears (yu need to have a bit of a flap at the lower part of the ear opening for the pod to “hook” onto. As soon as I take two steps they fall out.
I ended up buying a set of Klipsch X11i earphones - they sound 100x better (IMHO) that the Apple version - and they are lighter and they stay firmly in my ears!
Lets just state the obvious... shall we... they look like miniature vibrators from a sex toy store. Would a company not run by a homosexual spend millions of dollars to convince people that it is fashionable to stick a pair of miniature dildos in your ears?
You can get hearing aids
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
