Apple Losing Share of Wireless Earbuds Market Despite Growing AirPods Sales

[johnnyenv]

Apple once mocked companies for a fragmented approach to products. And thats exactly where they are heading with their entire product line.

Make AirPods Pro a £120 product and you've won the market over. They are great but they aren't nearly as technically advanced as a £300 Apple Watch.

 

[ghostface147]

AirPods need to have Beats battery life.

 

[TroyBoy30]

2 expensive for what they are

 

[ilikewhey]

Apple will replace it for free.

PS According to the article, AirPods sales will be 80+ million this year.

If you still have ac which expires after a year

 

[cmaier]

Apple once mocked companies for a fragmented approach to products. And thats exactly where they are heading with their entire product line.

Make AirPods Pro a £120 product and you've won the market over. They are great but they aren't nearly as technically advanced as a £300 Apple Watch.

How is apple’s approach fragmented? Everything is designed to work together and to foster lock-in and cross-sales.

 

[randyhudson]

I gotta say, I have had my APP for 8 months. The right one has been replaced twice and the left once. They don't have longevity and the sound degrades with distortion and static.

I just replaced my left one for the second time. Right has been replaced twice as well. The noise cancelling is great until the microphone's glue fails and it starts jiggling around with each step you take. That causes a tick or buzz to be generated every time you move.

 

[Apple Macintosh 128K]

Not that surprising. There are a million and a half different wireless earbuds on the market now and the prices are really coming down. Going to be hard for any one company to hold on to a large portion.

 

[Dave245]

I just replaced my left one for the second time. Right has been replaced twice as well. The noise cancelling is great until the microphone's glue fails and it starts jiggling around with each step you take. That causes a tick or buzz to be generated every time you move.

That sounds like the issue that I’m having, with the noise cancellation turned off it isn’t as bad. I do think there is a design flaw with these AirPods Pro.

I have already had one pair replaced by Apple.

 

[Mydel]

Waterproof is great but I am also sad to lose the port.

I agree. But I live in Bergen, Norway with average od 240 days of rain a year. All my iPhones were constantly soaking and had no issue with them. I also dropped phone to the river quite a few times and was OK. Im of course talking about models with the jack...

 

[now i see it]

Proof that AirPods are over priced

 

[Okasian]

I really think the whole connection thing is a myth; my cheap ($30) units I mention in my previous post connect instantly; in fact by the time I have lifted them to my ear, I just about hear the end of the word "connected" it is so quick. As I said before, the sound is so close to my £230 Sony's [I have sold these now] it cannot be sensible unless cost is no option or sound quality is the pinnacle of your needs.

Used to have those ↑ but moved on to the newer matte black versions which are slightly smaller. £30. Soundcore.

I was also worried about syncing issues + not being able to seamlessly switch between devices as I constantly move around rooms, change audio output, but if you have them paired to all devices you wish to use, they switch flawlessly.

Also if you’re not using them, and decide to switch on a device for which they are already paired, they automatically connect. I’m not sure if that is because of the version of Bluetooth, but I find it super useful.

But yeah, it’s a myth.

Would rather save ~£200 to easily spend on 5+ different cheapo pairs in future.

 

[MacBebe]

I am not really surprise about the market share shrinking for Apple. The funny thing was that, the original AirPod was ridiculed for being compared to a giant Q-tip. Now, everybody wants to be in the business.

 

[Denzo]

My AirPods were excellent fitting and never fell out during exercise. Didn’t sound that great but they were light and did the job.
My super expensive AirPod pros sound great but have the worst fit of any headphone I’ve ever used. They fall out when I open my mouth almost. If I tilt my head or clench my jaw you can feel them loosen their hold immediately. Awful product. Would not buy again. Did not expect the upgrade model to be **** as Apple always nails what the are doing. My wife and friend both tried them for a day and same story.
Thumbs down from me.

 

[Spiderman_g]

I bought cheap clone AirPods threw it away then I bought branded earbuds but low price then threw it away. When I bought AirPods Pro, I didn’t threw it away. I love it than cheap. ^_^

 

[Abazigal]

Just like iPads. Tons of alternatives, but we all know which has defined the product category.

 

[Baymowe335]

Only people who don’t understand math think this is surprising or anything of note.

 

[koil]

Air pods are still lacking low end they are great if all you like is highs in your music I owned a pair of the pro's lucky best buy has a 14 day return policy and I purchased Sony mx1000 and couldn't be happier.

Not even remotely comparable products, I love my AirPods because they fit neatly into the little AirPods pocket that exists on all jeans. I also love my over the ears noise cancelling headphones because they produce better sound and feature better noise cancelling. I use them when I plan to travel longer distances, but nothing beats travelling light and still having my AirPods accessible if I feel like listening to some music right now.

 

[ccraig13]

Love my AirPods, but I got a pair of $33 Anker buds that are semi-noise canceling, sweat proof, and don’t fall out for work. Audio is not amazing but great for that price point. Maybe I’d get AirPods again but the competition is making that choice difficult (which is a good thing for consumers).

 

[mtrm]

Not difficult to see why tbh. I love my AirPods Pro. They sound great and noise cancellation is decent, but they aren’t worth the 280€ Apple asks for them, especially given they are a paperweight after 3 years or so. Luckily I managed to get them cheaper back in November with some discounts and vouchers I had. Also, i don’t get some of features touted by Apple, such as the easy pairing thing. It’s not like other headphones are hard to pair or that you have to pair them everytime you use them, so the fact they are paired with all your devices at once isn’t exactly a feature worth of writing home about in my view (was kinda underwhelmed when i realised it was just that tbh). Now with the new firmware coming out in the next months that automatically switches to which device it’s connected to, that’s something that should’ve been there since day one and is something that will differentiate it from other products.
I also have a pair of cheap Xiaomi true wireless headphones (they costed me 27€) and I can see why people buy them. Sound is better on the AirPods, for sure, but for most people it’s not 250€ better. And the connection is just as stable as it is on the AirPods (never had a drop or sound cutting on either).
With all that said, the AirPods are great, but whilst they were revolutionary when they came out (and were worth the price being asked given they were something entirely new), you can now get 50% of the product for 10% of the cost, and most people will be just happy with that.

 

[pratikindia]

I have to say there are many better options than AirPods but the advantage of easy pairing is huge. It improved over the years but still Apple with W chip (or whatever is the name now) has an edge here. Regular AirPods are IMHO really horrible. The Pro version is decent but 100USD overpriced. I have to say that removing headphone jack was the biggest antienviromental move ever. All these wireless earbuds are utter nonsense that you have to trash after 18 months due to the charge holding max couple hours.

Apple had an edge. But now all of the buds do this. Even knockoffs have 100% copied this an them. You can’t know that it’s not Apple by just looking at them. Now there are lots of alternative. I personally won’t buy them due to comfort issue, but definitely have the normal Bose/Sony NC headphones.

 

[Realityck]

Duh, Apple is not center of the world when it comes audio market.

Sure, Airpods and closes relatives such as Beats play nicely with Apple ecosystem. But looking for bigger picture in IEM games, many option available from wired, wireless and true wireless. Sony, Shure, SennHeiser, just a few name. Not mentioning rising of affordable Chinese cans which gain traction in not only in audiophile ears but start to caters casual user as well.

Anytime Apple has to remove all the competition from the Apple store to sell their bought Beats or Apple headphones, wireless earbuds, earphones, it means you are being mislead about how good it is. A few years ago Apple store was a place you could buy multiple audio brands that were excellent. Lately the store is pretty mediocre and boring when it comes to anything audio. They got rid of Computer speakers, third party audio gear. Really need to revert their store practices, make the Apple store some place cool again. If they did, we wouldn’t be buying from everywhere else.

 

[Rocko99991]

Want to sell more Apple? Drop Airpods to $99. Design and sell foam covers for those of us whom they don't fit perfectly. Alienating a good chunk of people by the fit alone.

 

[Rocko99991]

One of my favorite.

View attachment 947962

credits : Nitrozac and Snaggy

But but but Apple is super environmentally conscious. They would never do this! Throw away plastic and batteries that will end up in land fills?! Blasphemy!

 

[Deliro]

If the regular AirPods have the same form factor as the pro than it confirms my decision that I will not buy a pair anytime soon. The pro model does not fit my ears well and my normal AirPods already have horrible battery life after only 18 months. Disposal tech indeed.

 

[Johnny907]

This is good news. As the industry catches up and proper competitors come forward, Apple will have to step up its game with upcoming models. Namely the control scheme for the Pro's is complete garbage. Trying to squeeze that stupid little nubbin while jogging is a massive step back from just tapping the sides of my previous Airpods.