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

Yeah, as in...

[BronsCon]

They literally run away from your ear so you have to buy another pair.

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.

re: Apple EarPods and "no headphone jack"

[King_TJ]

I think what many people aren't aware of (because Apple sure doesn't go to any effort to market it) is that the new Bluetooth EarPods use a proprietary "W2" chip which adds a number of proprietary extensions to the Bluetooth standards.

The iPhone 7 has the W2 chip functionality embedded in it for any devices able to support it, and defaults back to standard Bluetooth support for everything else.

The additional W2 functionality is supposed to address some of the glitches and hassles inherent in regular Bluetooth headsets and provide a better experience.

If you're a customer who prefers using wireless Bluetooth headsets with a cellphone to begin with (and MANY people I know do), the EarPods and iPhone 7 combo promises one of the better usability experiences you can get out that combo today. Yes, it may be at the expense of giving you a traditional headphone jack. But how much that matters to you really does depend on your use case.

Nope nope nope

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"It turns out the $159 AirPods Bluetooth earphones are selling well, or so CEO Tim Cook would have us believed."

I didn't believed it then and I don't believed it now.

Editing faux pas aside, the only thing they've been a "success" at is 1) making Apple mo' money and 2) locking users into ever-more-expensive gadgets that cannot be repaired.

iFixit gives the Apple AirPods a '0' out of 10 on the repairability scale, also known as the "worst possible score achievable". In other words, they can't be repaired, period. It appears that even Apple can't repair them, which is kind of amazing when you consider that they're the ones who built the fucking things.

AirPods make iPads look positively consumer-friendly in terms of service, and we all know what a total shit show it is to open an iPad....

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.