“Apple‘s wireless headphones, Airpods [sic], went on sale earlier this week. The buzz surrounding the launch was limited, given that the product was delayed for close to two months leading to significant inventory constraints,” Trefis Team writes for Forbes. “However, we believe that there is a possibility that the Airpods could overtake Apple’s high-profile wearable product, the Apple Watch, in terms of overall revenues and profitability in the long-run.”
“Airpods enable users to listen to music or phone calls wirelessly, much like other Bluetooth headphones in the market, while also providing deeper integration with Apple’s product ecosystem. For instance, the headphones offer a seamless pairing process with Apple’s iDevices, the ability to access Apple’s digital assistant Siri, and provide longer wireless range and battery life when paired with Apple devices,” Trefis writes. “Apple’s ecosystem effect and the large base of affluent iPhone users could provide a sizable target market for the Airpods. Moreover, the relatively accessible $159 price tag and Apple’s wide distribution footprint should make Airpods fairly easy to cross-sell to iPhone customers.”
“While Apple is unlikely to disclose sales figures, we believe that it should be able to ship roughly 22 million Airpods in the first year, assuming an attach rate of 10% with the iPhone,” Trefis writes. “Assuming that Apple ships about 8 million units over 2017, at an ASP of around $350, it would translate to Watch revenues of ~$2.8 billion.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Trefis’ 2017 Apple Watch units sales estimate is far too low.
Folks don’t realize that AirPods are equivalent to Watch in that they are a whole new product category that will be updated annually with new functionality and perhaps every few years with a refined design.
Apple has begun the process of building post-iPhone products. An advanced WATCH and advanced AirPods could do many things better than the phone. Especially in 5-10 years when AirPods are so small they are invisible and so comfortable you can wear them all day every day.
They could start by doing this. Make one ear for pause/play and siri activation and the other ear for volume, unless you only have one earPod in, then just do pause/play and Siri.
Right: One Tap = pause/play. Two taps = siri.
Left: One Tap = lower volume. Two Taps = raise volume. Three taps could pause (same as pause/play)
Having only one function is really not functional enough. And most people aren’t going to want to take the earPod out to pause. If I’m washing dishes, I want to tap to listen to someone, not pull it out with my soapy wet hand.
Honestly this is way too clunky of a solution. I’ve been using mine for 24 hours and the tap recognition is not as good as it could be. Users would be more frustrated by a 50% (at best) success rate, than helped. I’d rather see an always on “hey Siri” function.
“Assuming an attach rate of 10%” … yeah that number seems highly dubious. Listen, I bought a pair myself and have trouble with the idea that one out of every ten people will shell out for these.
1:10 seems reasonable to me…
I think you just don’t know what “attach rate” means.
Air Pods are not a desktop Mac, and they are not the Next Big Thing that everyone seems to so desperately want even as they discount the value of recent Big Things from Apple that are now in the refinement stages of the product life cycle. But they are important and they are one important piece of the larger Apple plan for wireless mobile computing.
The Mac “trucks” (and hatchbacks!) are still important, too, and will continue to be evolved by Apple. But they are well into the refinement stage in terms of design. The bigger picture is the ecosystem – how the hardware and software interacts and supports us efficiently and effectively. People are way too focused on GHz and TB.
I use audiophile type HP’s when listening to Music at home. When I travel in Airplanes I want an isolated HP like an In-Ear- Monitor…I get a new iPhone every year yet the Air Pods have zero appeal to me whatsoever …. In the car, my phone works on the sound system…again no need…
Also a similar situation for me, but mine arrived early this morning and I’ve got to say that they are better than I expected. The sound quality is better than the EarPods, although not as good as the apple in-ears, and Siri works surprisingly well on them. The pairing process is what was awesome, took 3 seconds and they automatically actually do connect to every signed in device. Terrific. So far so good. These are very useful to leave in all day while working, and the ability to customize the functionality (like turning off the pause feature if you remove one) is very nice. In the car not needed, at home the over the ears are used, but these are extremely comfortable and light to use walking or working. They also haven’t fallen out yet, and they don’t seem like they’re going to. The only problem so far is the slight distortion at the high end, which seems normal for EarPods so that isn’t unexpected. I’d love to see this W1 tech evolve, strongest Bluetooth connection of any headphones I’ve used though, don’t even really need empty space between them, signal doesn’t disconnect, and even seemed to work between floors in the house this morning. Overall very solid job. We shall see how they age over the next month or so, but good so far.
AirPods & Apple Watch are all part of a continuous buildout of a strategy that will see seamless connectivity in everyday life the likes of which the competition can but watch in awe!!
A whole new business lineup? Hardly. Airpods have an even narrower market than the fashion Watch. To save face, Apple will report the earnings for both products in the “Other” category.
Not everyone can accept the one-size-fits-all design. If you don’t like the feel of your older wired earphones, then you won’t like Airpods either.
Personally, I think that the iPhone 7 is testing the loyalty of iPhone users. Some people are more attached to their headphones than they are to their iPhone, believe it or not. Nice that Apple tossed in an adapter in the box, but how many people are just going to stick with the iPhone 6S? It will be interesting to see next quarter’s results — again, if Apple bothers to break out individual model sales. It is concerning that Apple refuses to provide better sales guidance. Not very proud of the most recent product sales, Apple?
Wait till you try them… They are awesome and they will sell many more of these than watches… These are the perfect all day headphones.. They charge extremely quick as well..
Do Beats compete with AirPods at all?
AirPods look great. But there’s a lot of bullshit about these being a wearable computer thanks to Siri. Can we be honest about Siri? It SUCKS. It’s dumber than a box of rocks. There are so many things it should be able to do, but it can’t. If you tell it to to read this article for you, it can’t. It can’t tell you what’s on TV tonight. It can’t tell you anything about your plane or movie tickets in the Wallet app. If you get a text message, Siri can’t read it to you unless you are using their hands free auto software with a compatible head unit. Siri is not a personal assistant. It’s a piece of defective software that does very little.
halo world