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I really dislike Apple's new pricing model.

Price sky high to get people who aren't price conscious, wait 6 months and then price lower, wait another 6 months and price even lower still...
It's called "uh, maybe they'll buy them at this price. No? Um... maybe they'll buy them at THIS price!"
It's not a great look for Apple.
 
It would be seriously fascinating to see the retail pricing strategy and how coordinated or not it might be with retailers.

I really believe that Apple, under TC, has specifically gone for even more MSRP markup to allow room for retailers to do sales.

Americans in particular are super gullible and easy to game this way.

$449 MSRP
"eh...maybe.."

$549 MSRP with periodic sales of varying interest to get things down to $499, $479 and maybe lower?
"WOW! We scored a huge deal on an amazing product from Apple!"
 
I understand how it works. I never expected lossless in wireless. What you don't understand is it doesn't work in wired mode either.
I very much understand how it doesn't work in wired mode. What you seem to not understand is the effort that Apple has taken to make regular, compressed audio sound amazing, without needing to use lossless. I think the only reason they are upgrading Apple Music to lossless is just because of the competition. If you've bothered to watch some of the exceptional reviews about these headphones and their competition, you would understand what they have accomplished. Its comparable to what they are doing with cameras on iPhones. No, the camera on an iPhone is not as great as some of the competition. But what the software does makes the photos look incredible. This is what computational audio accomplishes.

If you are a recording artist and need open-back headphones, these are not for you. For everyone else that wants a pair of over-the-ear headphones that give a remarkable listening experience, look no further.
 
Jony Ive Was Involved in the AirPods Max Design, Despite Leaving Apple in 2019.
 
What about the condensation issue? Did they ever sort that out or was the whole thing blown out of proportion to begin with?
 
50% discount and we're talking. I love Apple but the pricing of these things is just obscene.
No way they ever do that. Beats are going for 350 and selling well. These are a huge step up. The cheapest realistically might be 450+. Thats the market rate. Airpod pros are 250, no way these ever cost that price. Thats not realistic in any way. I dont agree with the price but they are selling so Apple knows what they are doing here.
 
Add a way to turn them off so they’re not constantly draining battery when not in use and I’ll consider it.
 
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Apple hasn't lowered the prices. Resellers have. That's been the case of every single Apple product as long as they've existed. Nothing has changed in their pricing model.
Apple used to enforce an MAP policy and at best you could find 5% off plus a freebee thrown in. Now-a-days if you wait long enough in a release cycle, you can find over 35% discounts.

With retailers constantly competing with each other via online price, the effect is what used to be a set price is now wildly all over the place depending on which way the wind is blowing.
 
This seems to be following a similar trend of discounts as the HomePod. I wouldn’t be surprised if these face a similar, if not worse, fate. Given the price is more than twice their competitions near performance matching models it seems doomed to fail. Rightfully so.

At least the HomePod provided a significant advantage in audio quality to help justify a higher price. These just brim with arrogance stemming from the success of AirPods.
Then why couldn’t Apple keep up with production until recently? They must be selling quite good.
and I haven’t heard any complaints about audio quality either.
 
Snagged mine from Amazon as “like new” during the Memorial Day sale. After gift cards the price was 425. Unfortunately I am out of town and had it shipped to a friends house. Can’t wait to try them out.
 
I very much understand how it doesn't work in wired mode. What you seem to not understand is the effort that Apple has taken to make regular, compressed audio sound amazing, without needing to use lossless. I think the only reason they are upgrading Apple Music to lossless is just because of the competition. If you've bothered to watch some of the exceptional reviews about these headphones and their competition, you would understand what they have accomplished. Its comparable to what they are doing with cameras on iPhones. No, the camera on an iPhone is not as great as some of the competition. But what the software does makes the photos look incredible. This is what computational audio accomplishes.

If you are a recording artist and need open-back headphones, these are not for you. For everyone else that wants a pair of over-the-ear headphones that give a remarkable listening experience, look no further.
Bluetooth audio is bluetooth audio. No amount of turd-polishing is going to make it sound like 500-600 dollars worth. I wrote this back when these fanboi trinkets came out, and would say exactly the same now.

There's no reason why lossless audio can't go wireless...Apple themselves released an excellent product with this capability 17 years ago. It's just the arrogance and lack of any true innovation that will prove these to be an epic fail.
 
I very much understand how it doesn't work in wired mode. What you seem to not understand is the effort that Apple has taken to make regular, compressed audio sound amazing, without needing to use lossless. I think the only reason they are upgrading Apple Music to lossless is just because of the competition. If you've bothered to watch some of the exceptional reviews about these headphones and their competition, you would understand what they have accomplished. Its comparable to what they are doing with cameras on iPhones. No, the camera on an iPhone is not as great as some of the competition. But what the software does makes the photos look incredible. This is what computational audio accomplishes.

If you are a recording artist and need open-back headphones, these are not for you. For everyone else that wants a pair of over-the-ear headphones that give a remarkable listening experience, look no further.
washed out with alot of noise? the camera competition is still a toss up in alot of areas, it really depend who u ask the android crowd or the apple crowd.

the same could be said for the APM, just by looking at the frequency spectrum analysis here you can tell which segment of the target audience apple is catering to. since you like APM, congrats you are part of apple's targeted audience.
 
Ummm...this is not Apple selling these. This is Amazon and B&H discounting them to attract people to buy AirPods Max from them, with the goal of people buying additional products from them. Its an approach that has been around for forever. Apple has nothing to do with this.

Unless Amazon, B&H, and (apparently) BestBuy, all simultaneously to cut their profit on these, it is very likely that Apple is giving some back end concessions to these vendors to support the price drop.

Apple has a very well crafted image. They don't discount directly. However, they does not prevent them from offering discounts to some of their top vendors. This could even be a case of Apple testing the pricing market. Have vendors sell at a lower cost and see if that increases sales.
 
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