Apple CEO Tim Cook Calls AirPods 'a Runaway Success' (cnbc.com)

It turns out the $159 AirPods Bluetooth earphones are selling well, or so CEO Tim Cook would have us believed. Cook dropped by the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday while on vacation, and talked about the AirPods sales. From a report on CNBC: In comments to CNBC, Cook declined to talk specifically on Apple's outlook, but he said it has been a "great holiday." He added that the company's new wireless earbuds, AirPods, are "a runaway success." When asked if more would come into stock, he said Apple's "making them just as fast as we can." AirPods debuted at September's splashy event, but saw shipping delays through most of the fall and finally hit shelves just days before the crucial Christmas shopping rush. The limited shipments were sold quickly -- ship dates are now six weeks out on Apple's website.

Comments

Apple's recent performance: Let's review

[popo]

1) iPad Pro: Meh.
2) Apple Watch: Meh.
3) MBP 2016: Meh
4) iPhone 7: Meh
5) Airpods?

I'm going to go with "Meh".

Re:Apple's recent performance: Let's review

[lgw]

Courage!

Apple took away the headphone jack, and now $160 headphones are selling quite well? I can certainly believe that. I can believe it's the only reason they removed the headphone jack. I can believe that no matter how badly Apple treats it's faithful, they'll just keep giving Apple money.

Runaway

[Tablizer]

Sell a car without a steering wheel (or with an awkward extension bar), then sell the steering wheel later at a premium and claim "our steering wheels are a huge success!"

He's the CEO of Apple

[93 Escort Wagon]

Maybe they're popular, maybe they aren't... but what else is the CEO going to say?

So bad

[SuperKendall]

Apple took away the headphone jack

Or you could, you know, use the adaptor included WITH EVERY iPHONE...

I can believe that no matter how badly Apple treats it's faithful

Yes, giving people free adaptors is certainly "treating them badly", right up there with setting your pants on fire with a defective phone. Wait, pants on fire, that phrase... it reminds me of you somehow... hmm.

And yet some people like Bluetooth

[SuperKendall]

And yet people are shilling out that $160 for the upsell.

SOME people are paying that because they like bluetooth headphones.

I don't; I just use the headphones included in the box. You know, the wired ones that plug directly into the phone? I have a set of noise canceling headphones too; I just leave the adaptor on that set, so to me there's no difference as I just grab a set of headphones and plug them into the phone.

What is your damage hating on people who like wireless headsets? They could use anyone else's you know, not just Apple's - as usual the Apple ones are just really well designed and so some people chose to buy them even though they are expensive.

Misleading?

[Rick Schumann]

Are they selling well because they're great, or are they selling well because people don't have much of a choice, with no headphone jack? I'm not an Apple guy nor am I an Apple hater, but this seems almost as disingenuous as Microsoft bragging about Windows 10 'adoption rate' when they fooled, lied, tricked, or literally forced their way onto people's computers. False news much?

Re:Misleading?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Are they selling well because they're great, or are they selling well because people don't have much of a choice, with no headphone jack?

iPhone 7 comes with an adapter to attach your standard headphones to the lightning jack.
iPhone 7 comes with a set of headphones that attach directly to the lightning jack.
iPhone 7 works fine with standard bluetooth stuff that works everywhere else

The actual answer is this: they are selling well because *they are novel* and because *they are Apple*. Each earpiece being independent is new and shiny, and Apple has solved some of the problems faced by prior entrants into this market. Additionally, the Apple branding makes what would otherwise be mockable (they look like retarded earrings) fashionable, removing a barrier to purchase that most competitors would face. Assuredly, no iPhone 7 user is forced into buying Airpods- out of the box, the phone works with every headphone that works with your previous iPhones.

Re: Apple EarPods and "no headphone jack"

[AmiMoJo]

The W2 chip isn't going to help at all with the two biggest flaws in the earpods:

1. Crap battery life
2. Easily lost

The only thing you can do about the battery life is remember to turn them off and carry the charging case around with you. Preventing loss will no doubt create a market for expensive bits of string to tie them together. Might as well just have had a band and stuck a bigger battery in it, solving both problems and costing a fraction as much.

Apple seems to love these anti-features. 0.01mm thinner phone so you can wrap it in a chunky case for protection and it will still bend in your pocket. Take away the headphone jack because ha ha fuck you, chump.