“The Apple Watch is now bigger than the iPod ever was. As the most popular watch of all time, it’s clear that the watch is a new market success story,” Horace Dediu writes for Asymco. “However, it isn’t a cultural success. It has the ability to signal its presence and to give the wearer a degree of individuality through material and band choice but it is too discreet. It conforms to norms of watch wearing and it is too easy to miss under a sleeve or in a pocket.”
“Not so for AirPods,” Dediu writes. “These things look extremely different. Always white, always in view, pointed and sharp. You can’t miss someone wearing AirPods. They practically scream their presence.”
“As all things distinctive enough, the distinction rubs on the user and that distinction begets new users and new distinction, and so on. So now we have a bona fide cultural phenomenon,” Dediu writes. “I have both my son and parents angling to get these things. I have not seen this universal appeal recently, even for the watch. You have to explain the watch. The AirPods explain themselves.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple only ships them in white for a reason.
I was on Madison [Avenue in Manhattan] and it was, like, on every block, there was someone with white headphones, and I thought, “Oh, my God, it’s starting to happen.” — Steve Jobs, 2004
Apple iPod ads featured silhouettes with Apple’s iconic white, corded earbuds
Just wait one or two more iterations of the Apple Watch and you will see it launch a true medical revolution. Although Apple is only certified to detect A-fib and heart rate and rhythm, it can already do so much more with ECG app. Once a few more large data studies are published the Apple Watch will be on the wrist on more and more people above the age of 45 to monitor their health status, with highly usable data for physicians, currently unavailable under any other circumstance.
Although the white AirPods are quite distinctive, there are many people requesting Apple producing black- or red-colored AirPods and they’re upset Apple isn’t making them.
I certainly never realized that these AirPods are a cultural phenomenon. Jeez, they’re just earphones and most people on the planet don’t even own iPhones. Maybe Apple really does need to update the iPod Touch so it will be perfectly suited to be used with the latest AirPods. I’ll have to take a pass, though. My ears aren’t shaped properly to hold those AirPods snugly. They just slide right out.
The next Watch will include a slave unit to were on the other arm and when it detects a heart attack, you hold your arms together on your chest and it works like a defibrillator!
I use Jaybird 2 from Costco. Forever returnable exchangeable. $89. Dark Brown. 4 hours plus a 5 hour clip on when the 4 hours is over. In-Ear with an app to adjust the frequency response tone pattern. Awesome bass and treble. Inconspicuous dark brown.
The Watch sucks as a music player. the list of unacceptable limitations is endless.
Too bad Apple abandoned high capacity portable music players with screens. Those would play the music you own, no rental or internet connection required. They allowed more than 256 GB of uncompressed music in your pocket.
Those were good days.
One does wonder why Apple cannot maintain the iPod lineup. Is it that hard to install a 1TB SSD into an iPod?
Phenomenon. Not I’m my area. Although I live in a town of just 30,000 people and all but not here. I’ve yet to see someone wearing them and back in iPod days they were everywhere. Personally purchasing a set of headphones at AirPods pricing to have crap battery life two years later is not for me
You probably don’t hang out with the right demographic. Every kid in my daughter’s high school has AirPods, and she freaked out when we told her she wasn’t getting them for Xmas (we had already bought them). She informed us she would be a “loser” without them.
Also I’ve noticed when I travel, which is very frequently, the use of AirPods by the business travel crowd keeps increasing. Standing on line to board NY-Chicago flights probably 30-40% of people are waring them. I would get some I except I am incapable of not losing something that small. As it is, I have to replace my wired headphones several times a year because I manage to either lose them or leave them at home when I leave on a trip and have to buy new ones at the airport.
Funny how we all forget there was never a white cord on headphones until the iPod now it is rare to see black ones.. What a change..
Just wait one or two more iterations of the Apple Watch and you will see it launch a true medical revolution. Although Apple is only certified to detect A-fib and heart rate and rhythm, it can already do so much more with ECG app. Once a few more large data studies are published the Apple Watch will be on the wrist on more and more people above the age of 45 to monitor their health status, with highly usable data for physicians, currently unavailable under any other circumstance.
Although the white AirPods are quite distinctive, there are many people requesting Apple producing black- or red-colored AirPods and they’re upset Apple isn’t making them.
I certainly never realized that these AirPods are a cultural phenomenon. Jeez, they’re just earphones and most people on the planet don’t even own iPhones. Maybe Apple really does need to update the iPod Touch so it will be perfectly suited to be used with the latest AirPods. I’ll have to take a pass, though. My ears aren’t shaped properly to hold those AirPods snugly. They just slide right out.
https://apskins.com/
Many sites sell gadgets to hold these in better.
The next Watch will include a slave unit to were on the other arm and when it detects a heart attack, you hold your arms together on your chest and it works like a defibrillator!
I use Jaybird 2 from Costco. Forever returnable exchangeable. $89. Dark Brown. 4 hours plus a 5 hour clip on when the 4 hours is over. In-Ear with an app to adjust the frequency response tone pattern. Awesome bass and treble. Inconspicuous dark brown.
The Watch sucks as a music player. the list of unacceptable limitations is endless.
Too bad Apple abandoned high capacity portable music players with screens. Those would play the music you own, no rental or internet connection required. They allowed more than 256 GB of uncompressed music in your pocket.
Those were good days.
One does wonder why Apple cannot maintain the iPod lineup. Is it that hard to install a 1TB SSD into an iPod?
They still make high capacity music players with screens. They are now called iPhones
Phenomenon. Not I’m my area. Although I live in a town of just 30,000 people and all but not here. I’ve yet to see someone wearing them and back in iPod days they were everywhere. Personally purchasing a set of headphones at AirPods pricing to have crap battery life two years later is not for me
You probably don’t hang out with the right demographic. Every kid in my daughter’s high school has AirPods, and she freaked out when we told her she wasn’t getting them for Xmas (we had already bought them). She informed us she would be a “loser” without them.
Also I’ve noticed when I travel, which is very frequently, the use of AirPods by the business travel crowd keeps increasing. Standing on line to board NY-Chicago flights probably 30-40% of people are waring them. I would get some I except I am incapable of not losing something that small. As it is, I have to replace my wired headphones several times a year because I manage to either lose them or leave them at home when I leave on a trip and have to buy new ones at the airport.
Apple watch bigger than iPods…give your head shake