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Wireless Headphone Sales Soared After Apple Dropped Headphone Jack (fortune.com)
Apple's decision to remove the headphone jack from new iPhones last year prompted lots of consumers to switch to wireless headphones, according to a new report on holiday shopping. From a report: Three-quarters of all headphones sold online in December were wireless models, up from 50% a year earlier, according to shopping tracker Slice Intelligence. Apple was the biggest beneficiary of the shift, as both its new AirPods earphones and models from its Beats subsidiary led the sales charts. The $159 AirPods, Apple's first wireless model sold under its own brand, didn't go on sale until Dec. 13, but the product quickly dominated the wireless headphone market, Slice found. In the year prior to the debut, the Beats brand topped online sales of wireless models with a 24% market share, trailed by Bose with an 11% share and Jaybird at 8%. But after AirPods went on sale, they grabbed 26% of online wireless sales, Slice found. Bose was second at 16% and Beats dropped to third with 15% of the market during the period considered.
If there is no headphone jack, buying traditional headphones would be pretty dumb. Any outcome other than an increase in wireless headphone sales would have been very unusual.
No thanks. The wire on wired headphones has never been a problem, and adding one more thing to my kit that needs recharging is undesirable. As is a dongle. As are earphones that aren't plug-compatible with airline entertainment and other phone-jack systems.
From iPhone 7 Tech Specs
In case no one noticed Apple bought Beats audio, who controls pretty much the entire wireless headphone market. Fast forward a year or so and now Apple ONLY sells devices that can use wireless headphones in their most popular product.
Do any of you Apple fanatics NOT see that Apple screwed you by removing a port and FORCING you into the wireless headphone market they own most of? Personally t's this kind of CRAP from Apple that made me completely abandon that entire eco-system years ago.
It looks like we're supposed to be dumbfounded that wireless headphone sales went up after the world's (probably) most single popular model of smartphone dropped its headphone jack.
Colour me fucking stunned.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
despite predictions of doom from the naysayers on Slashdot and that around half of them went for a non-Apple product..
Nobody sensible predicted that Apple fans would reject the iPhone because of the lack of 3.5mm jack. The counter-prediction is what's being laughed at - that 3.5mm connectors will immediately die based on Apple's say-so.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
"Sales of dongles soar after Apple removes MacBook Pro ports"
I can see what's next:
"Sales of external battery packs soar after Apple eliminates batteries from all products to make them 2 mm thinner"
"Sales of wireless keyboards soar after Apple removes keyboard from MacBooks to make them 1 mm thinner"
"Sales of trackpads, displays, and logic boards soar after Apple announces new MacBook Pro is an empty cardboard box; calls it 'our most innovative and courageous product ever'"
Colour me fucking stunned.
You got a Pantone chip for that?
Just curious.
Yes, "fucking stunned" is #0089af... The look was created by Derek Zoolander as a follow-up to Magnum... (grin)