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Apple Reportedly Lowering AirPods Production Due to Decreasing Sales

justperry said:
I bet the AirPods Max don't sell that well, priced too high.

Also, make them last longer, AirPods last for just a few years, then tossed in the bin because the battery is dead.
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It’s good when I was working from home but now office work has resumed I have no point to wear that out of the home. So the APM mostly sits on the shelf now. What a pity.
 
justperry said:
Bold
Haha, they are so good that Apple replaced them twice....the irony. ;)
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So good in terms of feature set. TBH the first time of the replacement was probably due to my mistake. I left it in a house with a toddler and the next day when I went to get it back the noise cancellation of one of the AirPods units no longer worked. The second time was because of the problem with the seal - the seal degraded over time and I tried my luck to have it replaced under the replacement program and I succeeded.

In conclusion, a good product in terms of feature set, style and integration into the Apple ecosystem; some problems with build quality but largely solved after my second time replacement.
 
MecPro said:
Diminishing returns when you get over £100. I mean the tech when you’re in the iOS environment is cool, but if I didn’t buy them right at the beginning when less options were available, then I probably may have opted for another brand.

I’ve seen some Anker Wireless buds that have over 20,000 reviews on Amazon and are 4.5/5 and are £40.

Also during the lockdown it didn’t make sense to have earbuds that only last less than 5 hours when you have work calls and stuff. I had my Bose NC700 and Jabra Evolve 85 on a lot more due to longer battery life, comfort and the ability to be connected to more than one device across different OS
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Thing is my favourite feature of the AirPods by an absolute mile is the easy transfer between all my devices. I currently use them with my phone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac all on a pretty much daily basis, plus they’re also paired with my girlfriend’s Apple ID and she sometimes uses them and, with a few very occasional hiccups, it just works. The main reason I got them was because I was sick of faffing around in bluetooth settings swapping my other headphones between devices.

luckily I did only pay £100 for the AirPods quite recently and hopefully I won’t have to replace them until I can get the next gen for around the same. But yeah until another brand offers the same integration I’ll be sticking with Apple.
 
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Just about everyone who has an iPhone has purchased or received one of the 3 generations for AirPods by now, its been out for a while and its the perfect gift. Not many will upgrade headphones just because of new features so a decline in production sounds about right, I also think.. lets say pop culture prefers the non pros as well but I dont think they have anything to worry about completion wise, it just works too well even though it doesn't at the same time lol
 
I was going to say why not just lower prices. But after taking a look at the AirPods price, we can get really good alternatives at around 50% of the AirPod's asking price. So I guess rather than Apple acknowledging AirPods are too expensive and lowering their prices, it just makes more sense to just cut production.
 
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Cut from 110 M units to 75-85 M units. 😳

This number are too crazy, considering it’s for iOS ecosystem only. I thought it would sell around 30 M units a year at best.
 
matrix07 said:
Cut from 110 M units to 75-85 M units. 😳

This number are too crazy, considering it’s for iOS ecosystem only. I thought it would sell around 30 M units a year at best.
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You do realize they work with iPads, Apple TVs and Macs as well, right?
 
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Col4bin said:
This makes sense. Love my Jabra 75t Sports. IMO they look, feel and sound better than AirPods in every respect. (But to each their own.)
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So the spatial audio is better on the Jabra's?

There is a lot of competition in this segment now, I'd have to say that Apple really expanded the wireless headphone market, before that a lot of people just went for cheap headphones (and probably still do but now wireless). I'd like to see their previous sales numbers - especially for the last year in lock down - anecdotally I know 5 people who have bought APP during lock down who would not have under usual circumstances.
 
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I've had Gen 1 and Gen 1 AirPods and AirPods Pro, love them and considering getting the AirPods Max later this year, do wish they were cheaper though.
 
Brenster said:
Handed my first gen AirPods to my son when I bought the AirPods Pro; still going strong for him, battery is holding up surprisingly well in them.
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What a fantastic product. I purchased mine on a launch day at the Apple store. I never used an Apple product for that long time, expect an MacBook from 2008 -2013.
 
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haruhiko said:
SHOCKING: if you don’t update a product for 2 years (okay okay, 1.5 years), after so many people have already bought the product, the sales will go down.

The AirPods Pro is so good that I don’t know what I want for the next version - given that Apple replaced my APP for free twice (one within the warranty period; another time under the replacement program), so now I have relatively new batteries inside the APP too.
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So your happy with a product the failed twice for you. Great that Apple backs them. But still they failed 2 times. This is coming from a APP user
 
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I’m not surprised. My Cambridge Audio Melomania buds knock bells off the AirPods. Amazingly they’re half the price of the AirPod Pros

You can have all the smart features you want but at the end of the day it’s sound that matters the most.
 
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justperry said:
I bet the AirPods Max don't sell that well, priced too high.

Also, make them last longer, AirPods last for just a few years, then tossed in the bin because the battery is dead.
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AirPods Max were never meant to be a high volume product. It's just Apple showing what they can do with premium over-ear headphones.

Of course they sold out anyway and were on 8-12 week lead times for many, which shows you there is a market for products like them from Apple.
 
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This was expected. I recently checked the headphones at a local electronics shop and found that currently there are at least two dozen of AirPod-like headphones on sale from different brands on display. Apple did not invent the in-ears wireless headphones obviously but certainly created a strong trend and opened the market. I do believe that Apple should drop now the price to 99$ for standard AirPods since many brands copied the technology rapidly and Apple's advantage in this segment is slowly fading away. There are even fake AirPods on aliexpress that have the Apple's custom chip and connect to the iPhone the same way as the original AirPods. Their price is 1/3 of what Apple is asking for and many customers just don't want to pay more for virtually identical product in appearance, performance and convenience.
 
contacos said:
AirPods in generally do not seem to be made to last, but I have bad luck with Apple headphones in general. Even before, the wired ones would die on me within a year (usually the left piece for some reason would stop working).

I had to get my AirPod replaced once (also the left one started to fail) and even with the replacement they last about 30 minutes now. My AirPod Pro also had to be replaced before because of the cracking issue. Lesson learned, if I ever do get AirPods again (they ARE convenient) I will add AppleCare+ to them for sure
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AppleCare saved my wallet with the Pros crackling issue. Definitely a must have with any of their headphones
 
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Too many cooks spoil the broth. Apple are just splitting all their product lines in too many ways.

Seriously, it’s a pair of wireless headphones. Why do we need 3 different versions?

Just make one singular pair of AirPods and give them every thing and drive all sales towards them, more focused. In my opinion the AirPods Pro should be the only AirPods in existence at this point.

I’ve held the same opinion regarding iPhone and iPads as well. iPhone Pro and iPad Pro should be the only iPhones and iPads available. Have a couple of screen sizes, fine, but features should be identical on both models.
 
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It makes sense, as people realize these are obscenely disposable products for that price, when their batteries die off. I’m actually on Pros after owning the first gen, but after this I’ll consider something else.

€200 down the drain every 2-3 years for headphones... I love how they work but that’s not me. Honeymoon period is over.
 
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