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DoctorTech

macrumors 6502a
Jan 6, 2014
736
1,962
Indianapolis, IN
I'm not familiar with marketing. However from a consumer's viewpoint what is happening is that this segmentation is not meant to lower prices, but do the opposite. I don't agree that new technology necessarily costs more. For a long time, iPhones cost the same year by year. Last years components get cheaper so that this years (more expensive) components keep the price about stable.
I understand where you are coming from. Most businesses, whether they make cars or laptops or anything in between, offer a range of products from "entry level" to "premium". Regardless of industry, the entry level products always have the smallest profit margin because they are intended for more budget minded "value shoppers". The premium products are intended for customers that focus less on price and more on features / status. I began my career back in 1988 as an electrical design engineer at General Motors. I may be off on my recollection but I believe GM's profit margin on a base model Chevy was around 8-9% and their profit on a fully loaded Cadillac was around 15-16%.

On a related topic, when Congress raised the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, GM had to sell 4 or 5 fuel efficient small cars for every Suburban sold so the average fuel economy for every GM vehicle sold would meet the higher CAFE standards. In order to sell enough small cars, GM had to cut their profit margin even further on small cars and increased the profit margin on SUVs.
 
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DjPiLL

macrumors member
Jun 26, 2009
60
4
Immediate purchase if it's a soft silicone tip for comfortable wearing and a working microphone that you can actually make calls on.

Had my Bose qc30s for a few years now, great on the audio and noise cancelling side but their microphone is pure garbage so i can't make a phone call with them as the other party can never make out what I am saying.

$200-300 is right in the proper price range for real noise cancelling earbuds. If it comes with an aware mode, then it's actually better at hearing your surroundings than regular airbuds. True aware mode means they use the microphone to amplify the outside sounds in the earbud so it almost acts like a hearing aid. It ends up being SAFER to use an aware mode than regular earbud with no true noise cancelling.
 

Johnny London

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2012
175
203
I understand where you are coming from. Most businesses, whether they make cars or laptops or anything in between, offer a range of products from "entry level" to "premium". Regardless of industry, the entry level products always have the smallest profit margin because they are intended for more budget minded "value shoppers". The premium products are intended for customers that focus less on price and more on features / status. I began my career back in 1988 as an electrical design engineer at General Motors. I may be off on my recollection but I believe GM's profit margin on a base model Chevy was around 8-9% and their profit on a fully loaded Cadillac was around 15-16%.

On a related topic, when Congress raised the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, GM had to sell 4 or 5 fuel efficient small cars for every Suburban sold so the average fuel economy for every GM vehicle sold would meet the higher CAFE standards. In order to sell enough small cars, GM had to cut their profit margin even further on small cars and increased the profit margin on SUVs.
Thanks for the insight. The takeaway here is that things can be more complicated than they seem... For the consumer though, it is a reality that the Best is getting more expensive than what the Best used to cost.
 
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DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,826
6,880
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
What will it take to make the haters realise this and think twice before opening their mouths to criticise an apple product (much less one which hasn't even been announced, much less released yet)?

what will it take for the former Apple haters to high hated on the purchase of Beats to realize the tech produced in the AirPods comes from Beats? Apple hasn’t ever produced wireless headphones of that quality every let alone sold more than one year (2 previous efforts got killed)! When will these AirPod faithful use Q-tips and start looking at better products to enjoy their music and call audio experience?

I never just trust a brand, and I’ve used Apple for years, I make that brand earn my hard earned dollars ... not following cliques.

Apple has proved their great with home audio (iMac built in speakers & HomePod; I used to own Sonos Play:1). They haven’t with music listing in portable headphones, Beats is a good start but nowhere close to the competition.


Formerly owned: AirPods 1 (9mths), Beats Studio 3 (5mths), currently: WF-1000XM3 & WH-1000XM3.
[automerge]1571660211[/automerge]
Doubt it. White is iconic, and Apple is having problems keeping them in stock to consider complicating their supply chain with another colour.

a colour is NOT iconic. It’s Apple sending a message! Then trying to clean it up like in the first AirPods release ad/commercial.

if Apple can have AirPods coloured in white they a just as easily do so in black. Do you even read what you typed? Wow.
 

cardfan

macrumors 601
Mar 23, 2012
4,230
5,331
I can't wait for MacOS Pro. Do you think they will go down that route as well?

Theyre waiting to introduce that with a working kb probably.

I took back S5 watch. I’m sure the Apple Watch Pro will be out next year. Got my eye on it.
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,634
22,137
Singapore
what will it take for the former Apple haters to high hated on the purchase of Beats to realize the tech produced in the AirPods comes from Beats? Apple hasn’t ever produced wireless headphones of that quality every let alone sold more than one year (2 previous efforts got killed)! When will these AirPod faithful use Q-tips and start looking at better products to enjoy their music and call audio experience?

Your mistake lies in assuming I use AirPods for the sound quality alone, and that no other factor applies. For me, the convenience and ease of use trump everything else, and sound quality is good enough for me. It really is the perfect bundle of compromises for me.
 
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whsbuss

macrumors 601
May 4, 2010
4,185
1,044
SE Penna.
Immediate purchase if it's a soft silicone tip for comfortable wearing and a working microphone that you can actually make calls on.

Had my Bose qc30s for a few years now, great on the audio and noise cancelling side but their microphone is pure garbage so i can't make a phone call with them as the other party can never make out what I am saying.

$200-300 is right in the proper price range for real noise cancelling earbuds. If it comes with an aware mode, then it's actually better at hearing your surroundings than regular airbuds. True aware mode means they use the microphone to amplify the outside sounds in the earbud so it almost acts like a hearing aid. It ends up being SAFER to use an aware mode than regular earbud with no true noise cancelling.
One of the rumors said iOS 13.2 has some reference to "focus mode" - whatever that means
 

Modernboy

macrumors regular
Mar 5, 2015
212
264
Los Angeles, CA
Others have commented, as this conversation has come up in the past, with a list of products that were cancelled.
As has been said before, rumored products that didn't materialize isn't the same as products that were announced and cancelled. I searched Google and these forums and can't find a list of products that were announced and cancelled in the last 10 years. This article is the closest I could find: https://www.valuewalk.com/2019/04/failed-apple-products-canceled/
 

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
34,303
24,032
Gotta be in it to win it
As has been said before, rumored products that didn't materialize isn't the same as products that were announced and cancelled. I searched Google and these forums and can't find a list of products that were announced and cancelled in the last 10 years. This article is the closest I could find: https://www.valuewalk.com/2019/04/failed-apple-products-canceled/
Someone made a list on macrumors similar to what’s in the link. Fair enough. Apple canceled a bunch of products in addition to the AirPower ( which I don’t even remember being formally announced)
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,826
6,880
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Your mistake lies in assuming I use AirPods for the sound quality alone, and that no other factor applies. For me, the convenience and ease of use trump everything else, and sound quality is good enough for me. It really is the perfect bundle of compromises for me.

actually I never assumed you even owned AirPods my reply n quote was in general to people.

for me, I love music and imho it’s the life blood for everything: happiness, communication universally, drowning in sorrow (therapeutically), expression of love, love making, understanding through all the arguments/fighting angry words my parents had over the years ~ the music each listened to they actually communicated! To me music is THE reason for living! Good enough doesn’t cut it for me, yet I’m absolutely no audiophile (ears are far too tiny lol).

that said, I’ve been using Bluetooth headsets and stereo headphones since the very first Ericsson “honker” that started it all just under 2 decades ago give or take a year. Convenience “is” having Bluetooth connection in of itself. Apple did something great to change the pairing paradigm from both the original and from androids NFC (initiated by Sony) ... which in thought I’d love to pair a new headset after unwrapping without have to power it on or take it out of its container right away (say carrying it home). Apple killed this with pair once, use across their entire ecosystem of devices you’re signed into.

where their strength is in simplicity of pairing and voice quality, the one time where a marketing slogan really meant something, the folly was in audio listening quality.

I’m going the latter is resolved with better designed stereo headphones, with touch gesture controls (including volume control).
 

Phone Junky

macrumors 68020
Oct 29, 2011
2,431
4,240
Midwest
Someone made a list on macrumors similar to what’s in the link. Fair enough. Apple canceled a bunch of products in addition to the AirPower ( which I don’t even remember being formally announced)
Go to the 26:30 mark.

Stated by Phil Schiller in September 2017. "Look for the AirPower charger next year."
 

VL_424

macrumors member
Sep 9, 2016
57
30
what are the chances of these releasing without any type of Apple event? Little less than a week and no mention of the rumored Apple event.
 

tkukoc

Cancelled
Sep 16, 2014
1,533
1,915
what are the chances of these releasing without any type of Apple event? Little less than a week and no mention of the rumored Apple event.
I'd assume this would be a silent release. Put it all on their website and it will sell. No event needed at all. And with the controversy they've been hit with recently, makes sense to do that as well. Guess we shall see, like you said.. week left in the month.
 

mrjohnnyglass

macrumors regular
Aug 4, 2012
127
107
I'd assume this would be a silent release. Put it all on their website and it will sell. No event needed at all. And with the controversy they've been hit with recently, makes sense to do that as well. Guess we shall see, like you said.. week left in the month.

This is what I'm banking on as well.
 
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turbineseaplane

macrumors G5
Mar 19, 2008
14,786
31,565
Sooner the better - my existing original AirPods are barely making it 2 hours at this point.

Time to get a new primary pair and relegate them to podcast usage, which is rarely more than 45min at a time for me.
 
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