As always, none of the numbers are official, so take all of them with a huge grain of salt. The article also doesn't link to a single source, not even an unofficial one.
> Assuming an even split of sales between Gen 1, Gen 2, and AirPods Pro, Airpods revenue was $12 billion in 2019
This itself is a terrible assumption. AirPods Pro launched in November 2019, so had just 2 months of sales. Even otherwise, there is never an even split between the lower and higher priced versions of any product, especially when the higher one costs nearly double.
Not only were they unofficial, the guess work was wrong. And even the facts were wrong. What annoys me is the blog is actually for investment. ( With Email Newsletter suggesting sign up for insight )
>Since 2017, Apple has sold roughly 215 million iPhones per year. These phones cost roughly $1,000 each, and therefore generate $215 billion of revenue for Apple each year. This makes up 81% of Apple’s total revenue
There is no need to guess. Apple actually report ASP when they were reporting Sales Unit Number. In 2017 their iPhone ASP were 618 - 697 depending on Quarter. In 2018 their iPhone ASP were 728 - 793. They stopped reporting unit and ASP in 2019.
Apple Fiscal 2017, 2018, 2019 Revenue was $229.234B, $265.595B, $259.97B And iPhone Revenue was $141.29 , $166.8B, iPhone % of revenue was ~62% to of their revenue.
Not 80%.
The blog post could have been so much better if he spend 10min actually looking up those number.
It's not just the numbers, there are other wild assumptions going on.
> That means almost all iPhone users are still either using wired earphones or none at all.
I'm sorry, what? Non-Apple branded Bluetooth earphones (including AirPod knockoffs) are ubiquitous, and far outnumber wired earphones (in part thanks to Apple and many Android OEMs dropping headset jacks).
Correct, these are all estimates. And the sales split is unclear, but both Airpods 2 and Airpods Pro have the benefit of launching before the holidays. They got a disproportionate number of sales from those 2 months. Even if everyone went with the $150 version (which is impossible), Airpods revenue would still be $9 billion at 60 million units. The point still stands though, Apple is making a killing off Airpods. Whether the exact number is $9 billion or $15 billion isn't as important.
I mean sure? Does that really change the point of the article?
Even 25% of those numbers gets us to really impressive revenue numbers.
Additionally the author's conclusion that although Airpod revenue is relatively good for a technology company, it's small compared to Apple's total revenue and as compared to the future value of services revenue this hardware enables.
I bought my wife AirPods gen 2 earlier this year, and then bought her the AirPod pro with noise cancellation for Xmas. Not common I’m sure but everyone said that noise cancellation was a godsend for taking meetings via phone and she concurred.
Amazing how Apple managed to make the first cool MP3 player, then the first cool smartphone and now the first cool bluetooth headset. For almost 20 years now, Apple has owned electronic fashion. Sony for example was unable to parlay its Walkman dominance into similar positions with new devices.
And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itself.
Which I think may bode well for Apple in that we are only scratching the surface of what the tech can do.
Impressive figures no doubt, but in my opinion flawed to consider Airpods as a standalone business and compare to other businesses. It's so successful specifically because Apple built bespoke chips, software, and integration across their ecosystem for the Airpods. This is something a brand new company building just the Airpods product would never be able to accomplish.
I am on my third "generation" (Airpods, AP wireless, Airpods Pro) of Airpods and have never been otherwise in the Apple ecosystem. I use Android. I think there are probably some advantages like quick pairing and being able to see battery level quickly, but so far haven't specifically needed this information. Really love the Airpods, previous had several pairs of in ear earbuds like the Google Pixel Buds, Beats, and over ear stuff like the Bose QC35. The Airpods were nearly perfect, even without an iPhone, and the Airpods Pro have made me totally replace even my Bose over the ears.
I think it's an amazing product even without the integration and software and integration.
Yup, good point. It's not possible to extract AirPods from Apple and still have them be as successful. But it's illuminating to isolate the business against a backdrop of other top tech companies. It's kind of like Apple spawned Silicon Valley's hottest new tech company in 2016.
The submitted title ('Airpods make more money than Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat, and Shopify combined') broke the site guidelines, which say: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize."
Cherry-picking the detail you think is most important from an article is a form of editorializing. If you want to say what you think is important about an article, do not do so by changing the title. Instead, post it as a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's.
I have a pair of Airpods. What bugs me most is that le lithium battery is not replaceable, and will degrade after a couple years. which makes these a high-end throwaway device...
I was at Costco a while ago and overheard a conversation between some kind of store manager and several visitors in suits.
The manager was explaining that on weeks when AirPods are in stock their sales in the electronics department more than double. The exact numbers he mentioned escape me but were staggering. The whole time people were loading thousand dollar TVs onto carts - and the AirPods alone were doing that much over again in sales.
Airpods are an integral part of Apple's future medical ambition. Always in ear Airpods constantly taking your Temp, HR, Glucose, GSR, etc. With the kicker that it is only stored locally and securely on your device, all processing done locally via HealthKit. That customized data will change how we think about patient care.
A couple years ago, I got a bit of saltwater in my iPhone and the headphone jack failed. Since the next generation of iPhone (the iPhone X) was about to come out, I held onto it for a couple months and bought AirPods.
I then realized this was Apple's real reason for eliminating the headphone jack. It had nothing to do with courage. It was about eliminating a deeply ingrained user habit so they could solve the problem they themselves created. I wouldn't have bothered with the AirPods if my headphone jack had continued to function.
That said, I don't know if Apple's strategy bothers me. There are a lot of user behaviors rooted in history and old constraints rather than good usability. There are a lot of downsides, but as someone who views technology as ephemeral I don't know if it matters to me.
Am I out of touch or are audio-first interfaces use in public spaces/work very unpopular? I rarely witness people actioning Siri/Google assistant, most of the time I guess for obvious reasons. I wonder what's the future of audio-first UIs.
Obviously that's not the case in private, at home, the car and at specialized aplications (ie medical), where audio tech is thriving.
At a time when Apple in many ways feels like it's stagnating, the AirPods are a breath of fresh air. With an "old Apple" focus on the details, they present a fantastic user experience and give me faith that Apple still has the ability to innovate when freed from the constraints of a long-lived, entrenched product.
I can't wear any earphones for more than 5 minutes without them falling off, this is due to the morphology of my ears. I wonder: how large is the percentage of people with the same problem? Anecdotal, but I know personally at least a couple other people that can't wear earphones for the same reason.
Note: I'm talking about earphones/earbuds exclusively, headphones are fine for obvious reasons. Also some types of earphones (designed for sports) that have "ear-hooks" behind the ear are fine since the hooks will keep them in place.
Note 2: my ears don't have the "bump" (not sure what the scientific term is) that is circled in red in this picture https://imgur.com/a/CJv20Zu
You are definitely not alone! I have a very small antitragus, earbuds are not an option for me. They hold so poorly that I can't even walk around without them falling out, much less do any real activity. And if that weren't bad enough, for some reason they cause a significant amount of pain after 10 minutes or so.
If it's an ongoing problem that you really want to solve, check out companies like Etymotic who will take custom molds and make you exactly the earbud you need. I don't have headphones like this but I did get my musician-quality earplugs for live music done this way and it is a 1000% game changer for me.
I lack that same bump! Historically I have only ever bought the kind of earbuds with the behind the ear hooks as well. That being said, the airpod pros stay put for me pretty well out of the box, but even better after I modded them with some memory foam.
You’re not alone, I have trouble keeping earbuds in also. If I keep my head still, they will slowly slip out after about a half hour. Doing any sort of exercise will make them fall out. I have tried many different tip types and sizes for these and other earbuds/IEMs. Outside of expensive custom-fit IEMs, I’m not sure what to do besides resort back to over-ear headphones.
The pros you sort of shove into the ear canal and they're more or less wedged in place, right? Same with other earbuds like jaybirds. They're very different design than the normal airpods in that sense which I could totally see falling out if you were missing this "bump" on your ear.
True for me as well, but more importantly, the horrible audio quality literally causes me pain. Something to do with the poor frequency eq curve and limited range, I'm guessing.
(Plus, phones that leak audio seem rude in public places.)
We're slowly turning into cyborgs. So far, the pieces are removable so the transformation has not truly started except for some people with disabilities. I wonder for how long that will remain true.
I expect to be the odd guy still using over-ear headphones at some point. When everybody just gets implants. Or maybe I'll just join the crowd when my hearing gets worse. Wouldn't want to miss out on music would I?
I have to wonder what percentage of people are like me and Apple earbuds/AirPods have never fit their ears? Are my ears that strangely shaped? Most people seem to have no problem when I've never found a pair of Apple earbuds that can stay in my ear if I do anything other than sit completely still and upright. They just don't fit, at all in any way.
I have to use earbuds with a stiff silicone shroud that I can shove deep enough on my ear canal that they can't fall out. I couldn't even get the hard plastic Apple earbuds to balance in my ear, they just fell right out.
How does this compare to Apple Watch? Sounds to me like this is a fairly big upside surprise. If you were given the choice beforehand, which of the two would you want to have managed?
I would have guessed Watch but it looks like I'm wrong. Pretty astonishing that people will throw an extra quarter on top of the price of their phone for this, especially given that I've used noise cancelling headphones before. My guess would have been that removing the wire would only make a small difference.
I guess the market is there to discover this kind of thing. Kudos to Apple for finding this.
A couple of key things make the experience fundamentally different from traditional headphones, for me:
- I can carry the little dental-floss-case around with me everywhere in my pocket. Even if I don't plan on using them, I have them there just in case. Especially when it comes to noise-cancelling, this has a major effect on day-to-day life for me as unexpected use cases pop up.
- It's not just the lack of a wire: one entire step is eliminated from starting and stopping using your headphones. You just put them in your ears, or take them out. There's no messing with a cord or even a menu on your phone. Something easy is made effortless, which matters.
- Once in, they stay out of the way so well that you can leave them in even if you're not using them. Then when you do unexpectedly decide to watch a video, or take a call, your phone is already plugged directly into your headspace, no extra step necessary.
- All the little details. The fact that taking one out of your ear pauses your media and placing it back in resumes it is essential for wearing them passively while out and about; ordering a coffee, etc. No fumbling with your phone for a pause button; the social signal for "I'm listening" is paired with what you want your media to be doing at that moment.
All of this combines into an experience so frictionless it's mindblowing.
One more thing to consider, Apple Watch works with iPhones only. It might have changed now, but given how integrated with apple ecosystem the watch is, i doubt it is anything but a weak neutered version of the iphone+apple watch experience.
Airpods, on the other hand, work great with Android. The only neutered “features” are those that i dont consider vital at all (like being able to rename the display name of your airpods that gets sent to devices attempting to pair with them).
It's definitely anecdotal, but I know probably 30+ people who own Airpods and have never heard of anyone losing or having to have them replaced for any reason.
All you have to do is put them in the case whenever you aren't wearing them. The case isn't so small that you're going to lose it. Plus, that way they're always charging.
I used to be scared to lose mine while running. They never came close to falling out. Also the new generation of the AirPods is more secure in the ear.
Anyone have experience using AirPods with Android? I have a Google Pixel(first gen) and have tried various Bluetooth earbuds, but they all suck and have frequent interference. Would be cool if I can bite the bullet and get AirPods without suffering those same issues.
Used them for a year on my old Galaxy S8+, no issues whatsoever. In fact, they worked so well, they made me consider a forage into other apple once again, after not using any for over 5 years. A lot of my friends with Androids use airpods as well, and they vastly seem to prefer them, considering that a good number of them went through a few other truly wireless in-ear headphones before settling on airpods.
works fine on my pixel 2. You can't 100% control the pods from your phone (only thing I know is you need to sync w/ a mac to change stuff like wifi name).
[+] [-] paxys|6 years ago|reply
> Assuming an even split of sales between Gen 1, Gen 2, and AirPods Pro, Airpods revenue was $12 billion in 2019
This itself is a terrible assumption. AirPods Pro launched in November 2019, so had just 2 months of sales. Even otherwise, there is never an even split between the lower and higher priced versions of any product, especially when the higher one costs nearly double.
Another source (https://hypebeast.com/2019/12/apple-airpods-stats-third-larg...) estimates the sales at $6 billion, half of what the parent article says.
[+] [-] ksec|6 years ago|reply
Not only were they unofficial, the guess work was wrong. And even the facts were wrong. What annoys me is the blog is actually for investment. ( With Email Newsletter suggesting sign up for insight )
>Since 2017, Apple has sold roughly 215 million iPhones per year. These phones cost roughly $1,000 each, and therefore generate $215 billion of revenue for Apple each year. This makes up 81% of Apple’s total revenue
There is no need to guess. Apple actually report ASP when they were reporting Sales Unit Number. In 2017 their iPhone ASP were 618 - 697 depending on Quarter. In 2018 their iPhone ASP were 728 - 793. They stopped reporting unit and ASP in 2019.
Apple Fiscal 2017, 2018, 2019 Revenue was $229.234B, $265.595B, $259.97B And iPhone Revenue was $141.29 , $166.8B, iPhone % of revenue was ~62% to of their revenue.
Not 80%.
The blog post could have been so much better if he spend 10min actually looking up those number.
[+] [-] morganvachon|6 years ago|reply
> That means almost all iPhone users are still either using wired earphones or none at all.
I'm sorry, what? Non-Apple branded Bluetooth earphones (including AirPod knockoffs) are ubiquitous, and far outnumber wired earphones (in part thanks to Apple and many Android OEMs dropping headset jacks).
[+] [-] 123six|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dwolb|6 years ago|reply
Even 25% of those numbers gets us to really impressive revenue numbers.
Additionally the author's conclusion that although Airpod revenue is relatively good for a technology company, it's small compared to Apple's total revenue and as compared to the future value of services revenue this hardware enables.
[+] [-] remote_phone|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 123six|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] larrydag|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gz5|6 years ago|reply
And make no mistake about it - a huge portion of these sales are people buying Apple's marketing - not buying the tech itself.
Which I think may bode well for Apple in that we are only scratching the surface of what the tech can do.
[+] [-] gmaster1440|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ganstyles|6 years ago|reply
I think it's an amazing product even without the integration and software and integration.
[+] [-] 123six|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] psv1|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|6 years ago|reply
Cherry-picking the detail you think is most important from an article is a form of editorializing. If you want to say what you think is important about an article, do not do so by changing the title. Instead, post it as a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[+] [-] jackhalford|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] russell_h|6 years ago|reply
The manager was explaining that on weeks when AirPods are in stock their sales in the electronics department more than double. The exact numbers he mentioned escape me but were staggering. The whole time people were loading thousand dollar TVs onto carts - and the AirPods alone were doing that much over again in sales.
[+] [-] dsalzman|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] madrox|6 years ago|reply
I then realized this was Apple's real reason for eliminating the headphone jack. It had nothing to do with courage. It was about eliminating a deeply ingrained user habit so they could solve the problem they themselves created. I wouldn't have bothered with the AirPods if my headphone jack had continued to function.
That said, I don't know if Apple's strategy bothers me. There are a lot of user behaviors rooted in history and old constraints rather than good usability. There are a lot of downsides, but as someone who views technology as ephemeral I don't know if it matters to me.
[+] [-] ojosilva|6 years ago|reply
Obviously that's not the case in private, at home, the car and at specialized aplications (ie medical), where audio tech is thriving.
[+] [-] gigatexal|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _bxg1|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mastazi|6 years ago|reply
Note: I'm talking about earphones/earbuds exclusively, headphones are fine for obvious reasons. Also some types of earphones (designed for sports) that have "ear-hooks" behind the ear are fine since the hooks will keep them in place.
Note 2: my ears don't have the "bump" (not sure what the scientific term is) that is circled in red in this picture https://imgur.com/a/CJv20Zu
Edit: that bump that I don't have is called "Antitragus" https://elementsofmorphology.nih.gov/anatomy-ear.shtml
[+] [-] krazyk8s|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smhinsey|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] velosol|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jtms|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fancyfish|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skizm|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] downerending|6 years ago|reply
(Plus, phones that leak audio seem rude in public places.)
[+] [-] eddiecalzone|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] usertrjx|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lolc|6 years ago|reply
I expect to be the odd guy still using over-ear headphones at some point. When everybody just gets implants. Or maybe I'll just join the crowd when my hearing gets worse. Wouldn't want to miss out on music would I?
[+] [-] nkrisc|6 years ago|reply
I have to use earbuds with a stiff silicone shroud that I can shove deep enough on my ear canal that they can't fall out. I couldn't even get the hard plastic Apple earbuds to balance in my ear, they just fell right out.
[+] [-] lordnacho|6 years ago|reply
I would have guessed Watch but it looks like I'm wrong. Pretty astonishing that people will throw an extra quarter on top of the price of their phone for this, especially given that I've used noise cancelling headphones before. My guess would have been that removing the wire would only make a small difference.
I guess the market is there to discover this kind of thing. Kudos to Apple for finding this.
[+] [-] _bxg1|6 years ago|reply
- I can carry the little dental-floss-case around with me everywhere in my pocket. Even if I don't plan on using them, I have them there just in case. Especially when it comes to noise-cancelling, this has a major effect on day-to-day life for me as unexpected use cases pop up.
- It's not just the lack of a wire: one entire step is eliminated from starting and stopping using your headphones. You just put them in your ears, or take them out. There's no messing with a cord or even a menu on your phone. Something easy is made effortless, which matters.
- Once in, they stay out of the way so well that you can leave them in even if you're not using them. Then when you do unexpectedly decide to watch a video, or take a call, your phone is already plugged directly into your headspace, no extra step necessary.
- All the little details. The fact that taking one out of your ear pauses your media and placing it back in resumes it is essential for wearing them passively while out and about; ordering a coffee, etc. No fumbling with your phone for a pause button; the social signal for "I'm listening" is paired with what you want your media to be doing at that moment.
All of this combines into an experience so frictionless it's mindblowing.
[+] [-] filoleg|6 years ago|reply
One more thing to consider, Apple Watch works with iPhones only. It might have changed now, but given how integrated with apple ecosystem the watch is, i doubt it is anything but a weak neutered version of the iphone+apple watch experience.
Airpods, on the other hand, work great with Android. The only neutered “features” are those that i dont consider vital at all (like being able to rename the display name of your airpods that gets sent to devices attempting to pair with them).
[+] [-] MBCook|6 years ago|reply
But compared to the iPhone it looks small so people dismiss it.
[+] [-] zyang|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Waterluvian|6 years ago|reply
That's all that's stopping me from buying this and other premium products. I love premium products but not if I have to replace them every year.
[+] [-] frenchie4111|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _bxg1|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notimetorelax|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nathancahill|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tbrock|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yjhoney|6 years ago|reply
Honestly a little surprised that Airpods would be so successful.
[+] [-] komali2|6 years ago|reply
Lol, or they're using other Bluetooth headphones?
[+] [-] ravenstine|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] filoleg|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hoten|6 years ago|reply