“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.