That's why I won't buy earbuds or e-watches -- any brand. For the price of an Apple Watch Ultra 3, I can get a Bulova or Tavannes that will last the rest of my life and require only batteries, which are recyclable.
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AirPods Pro 3 Impossible to Repair, Earn Score of 0 in iFixit Teardown
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And you missed marketing cost.
And you are 100% correct, just that using those numbers people throw out here sound just so muCh better even though they are just guesses …
With Apple Care, I was advised at the Apple Store to take them in a month or two before the two years is up and, if the batteries in the buds or case are starting to go, they'll just swap them for a new pair for $30. Not sure what Apple does with them from there, but hopefully it's better than owners just throwing them in the trash.
It's weird regardless of what their actual cost is.
If someone bought a stock for $10, and the market is now clearing the same stock for $100, is anyone going to say selling the stock back out at $100 is 'ripping someone else off'?
Price will always be set at what some else is willing to give for it for. Good for Apple on spending so little money to create so much value for others that they are willing to pay a huge premium for it.
Remember Apple is not the government, they are not compelling any of us to buy their stuff. At the same time, we can't compel them to sell at some arbitrary price that we think is 'fair' given their cost.
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The majority of that will be spent on chip design (~$1B per 3nm chip), iPhone, software, and frontier technologies like Vision Pro.
Apple sells about 120 million sets of AirPods per year. The R&D cost for AirPods would be less than a $1 per set.
If it were anything high, there wouldn't be so many good competitors on the market like Nothing, Bose, Sony, and even Anker.
That is just a pure BS claim, nothing else
I'm sure you spend way more money buying overpriced coffee.
While the APP3 excel in sound quality and features, the reduced case battery capacity is a notable step backward in my experience.
The APP3s last a lot longer than my APP2s did (albeit they were older) - so I don't even notice the reduced case capacity. Maybe I don't use mine enough
.I got four years out of my first gen AirPod Pro’s taking them in under AppleCare at month 23 but didn’t have to pay anything because the batteries were degraded enough to qualify for replacement.
I understand why these are not repairable, people decide when they purchase them whether the convenience trade off and features are worth it to them. I’d love if they lasted forever but that’s just not the case.
I’m hopeful the 3s last longer since they have better battery life and should show degradation slower.
Yeah. Because tens of millions of lightning cables being thrown in the landfill wasn’t enough.
I’m generally pro-repairability, but this thing is smaller than the end of my finger.
I’m not gonna slate Apple for this.
I’m not gonna slate Apple for this.
I suppose they can be somewhat recycled if you give them to apple, at least the magnets and the battery
I don’t think they’ll say anything, for this category of device.
You can save your own conscience by not buying them
If you threw them in a landfill, that's 100% on you. Recycle them as they have copper, or hand them to someone who still uses lightning as there are millions of such devices still in service. I had no issue handing out the dozen or so that I had.
..additonally, Apple could have made better lightning cables as theirs were trash, and I did have to get rid of those. I had lightning cables turn yellow and start breaking down in the box the phone came in. They were never removed or uncoiled, and stored in my climate-controlled basement.
The gross profit after all of Apple’s costs globally is around $20-30. The phone is the profit maker.
Humanity concluded in the 1980s that humanity is really bad at safely disposing of batteries. They throw them in the streets, in the parks, in the rivers, in the common trash.
So if you want AirPods to have user replaceable batteries then you’re asking for your environment to be turned into toxic trash with dead animals and undrinkable water, like India’s pollution but global.
But cappuccinos for that sum over six months is fine, or?
As long as they are properly recycled and materials re-used I don't think it will be that bad for the environment. I can at least understand why it's likely hard to make such device user repairable. And I think Apple offers a battery replacement service for them.
Yes, they do:
AirPods Replacement, Repair, and Service - Apple Support
Learn how to get service for your AirPods. We can troubleshoot the issue and help you arrange a repair or get your lost AirPods replaced. Find out the costs and service options near you.
People have known this for years. Apple doesn’t even bother to repair broken AirPods. They toss them in the trash and give you new ones. This has been true from the very first AirPod. They’ve never been repairable.
I wonder if the manufacturer should be obliged to buy back used electronic equipment for a certain percentage of its original value and recycle it if they are unable or refuse to repair it.
Huh? I don’t even drink coffee, lol where in the world are you getting these assumptions from?
If you must know, I’m a dad and money is tight and I can’t justify it, nothing wrong with that
My Sony mirrorless camera takes a removable battery, yet that battery is sealed in a plastic enclosure with electrical contacts and onboard electronics. I look at the AirPods just the same: sealed in a plastic enclosure with electrical contacts and onboard electronics. The AirPods themselves are the replaceable batteries. In the end, it's splitting hairs...
If you are concerned about the environmental impact of AirPods, go with wired headphones. No battery to wear out, but now you're back to managing a wire and plug (and the eventual deterioration of the wire/plug).
When you hand your old AirPods into Apple, I would hope they at least go to an e-waste reclamation partner that shreds them and recovers some of the raw materials. Would be interesting to know for sure.
The worst thing for e-waste is to have it sitting in a drawer. Send it in for recycling. Apple will even pay for shipping on all sorts of stuff, so there must be some value in it for them. They've even taken old Android phones off my hands.
If you are concerned about the environmental impact of AirPods, go with wired headphones. No battery to wear out, but now you're back to managing a wire and plug (and the eventual deterioration of the wire/plug).
When you hand your old AirPods into Apple, I would hope they at least go to an e-waste reclamation partner that shreds them and recovers some of the raw materials. Would be interesting to know for sure.
The worst thing for e-waste is to have it sitting in a drawer. Send it in for recycling. Apple will even pay for shipping on all sorts of stuff, so there must be some value in it for them. They've even taken old Android phones off my hands.
Everyone I know who buys actual watches spends a hell of a lot more on watches than they say they do. They eat more than batteries and they aren't anywhere near as durable as half the smartwatches are.
Fine example is a friend who just spends 2x S10's every 3 years on servicing his 3x S10 priced watch.
Even a fairly decent one you'll be lucky to get 10-15 years out of.
If you just want a watch and are really worried about the pricing, get a Casio F-91W and throw it away when the battery goes flat or the strap falls to bits and get another one. You'll be up on anything else financially when you drop dead.
I’m in the market for a new Apple Watch too, mine broke a few years ago, I’d get one of the new pebbles but due to apples arrogance I heard I’d be locked out of certain features such as notifications working properly