Nothing. The Airpods are priced extremely competitively. Their best competitor, Jabra Elites are
$165. Samsung Galaxy Buds are
$165. Sony's WF series starts at
$178. Bose Soundsports are
$199. And the Jabra Sport is
$199.
And then when you get to the top end of the market, B&O's are
$350. And Sennheiser Momentums are
$299. So no, the Airpods are not even close to being a tough sell.
The AirPods when they first came out were not a hard sell as they were the only game in town and a new, novelty idea by apple with a truly wireless listening option. However, now, after people have been using the gen 1 and seen firsthand the negatives with them after use, see what the competitors have brought to the market, and seeing now little has been changed in the gen 2 while retaining a higher price point then the original gen 1 (yes u get the wireless charging case but have to pay more; if u didn’t want to pay more and didn’t want the wireless charging case there is virtually no reason to upgrade EXCEPT for your gen 1 battery life now being terrible and forcing the upgrade), the new AirPods and the BPro Buds will both be a hard sell for Apple at those price points.
Apparently $175 for a “1.5 year RENTAL” is a good deal to you.... I purchased the AirPods new for my wife and I both and we are lucky to get 2 hours of listening on a full charge now; that’s a ridiculous price point for a product that does not have any part replacement options for battery issues if they are gonna be that bad after such a short time. The AirPods are not “extremely competitively priced;” they are the most convenient, being completely wirefree, and offer unique integration within the Apple ecosystem due to iOS that u cannot get with the other brands. That’s why u pay for the AirPods, not because they have the best sound, battery life, features, or even fitment. The integrated user experience is what u pay for and expect from Apple. What I did not expect at that price from Apple was a device with a non replaceable battery that lost over HALF of its usage rate in a dramatically short time period as NONE of my other, less expensive, buds have done anything similar since their usage began.
I was being facetious when I stated “what do I know” as I know more then I probably should about headphones lol but I guess I forgot to add the /s.
I have many different sets of headphones from AirPod type (wireless buds) to wired (together) wireless buds to wired buds to cans to on-ear, over ear, and everything in the middle; as well as no name brands to Senn, B&O, Master & Dynamic, Sony, BOSE, Apple, Beats, Jabra, all the way to Grado. People will pay for convenience, features, reliability, and acceptable use for their products and devices. I have $85 cans that sound great, buds that haven’t lost ANY wireless battery at all, wireless cans that get 25-40 hours before charging, etc. Apple is simply not being competitive with products in pricing or feature set in this market segment any longer and this is evident by the volume of people keeping their old AirPods (gen 1) till they die and NOT upgrading, and choosing other products in this price range that are more in line with feature, prices, and consumer products expectations.
Didn’t mean to write a novel here lol, but if you think $250 for the BPro Buds is a good deal and u like them that’s great; and if u think the AirPods are competitively priced and like them then get a set and enjoy them too. If not, that’s great too. Variety gives us freedom to choose what we individually perceive is an acceptable trade off in price versus performance.
Have a great day
