In the current world almost every smartphone user owns a pair of earphones. Nowadays you might have come across earphones that don’t have a wire connecting both buds to the device that you are using.

Airpods are the top selling wireless headphones in the world right now. Ever wondered how they became a successful product? Let’s dive deep into Apple’s genius tactics.

Flashback to 2016, when Apple announced their first pair of Airpods, everyone was stunned after looking at those earbuds that could work without any wires. But that came with a catch!

In order to make Airpods a lucrative buy for iPhone users, Apple removed the headphone jack of their newest model the iPhone 7. As the iPhone 7 eliminated the possibility of plugging in wired headphones, they branded the Airpods as a solution for that. As the Airpods have the ability to work independently without wires, it was an easy solution for Apple to sell it to those people who bought an iPhone 7 and would want to listen to music.

That is what I mean by “Creating a problem and selling a solution”.

They have created a problem of not including the headphone jack and have managed to make a solution out of it by making Airpods!

Apple’s Masterplan

When Airpods were first launched, they cost $160! That was a high price for earbuds at that time. But they offered unparalleled comfort to the ear as they had no wires running through! As Apple had the early advantage, they had the liberty of pricing the product as per their preference as the competition was almost non-existent at that time.

Eventually other Android smartphone brands started to remove the headphone jack off their phones to promote their wireless audio solutions to not only compete with Airpods, but to also increase their profit margins. Nowadays, it is rare to see Android phones that cost more than ₹25,000 even with the headphone jack.

Advantages of Airpods:

  • Seamless pairing and operation with Apple devices
  • Comfortable
  • Portable since it can be easily stored in a case.

Disadvantages of Airpods:

  • They have to be charged more often when compared to traditional Bluetooth earphones since each individual pod has a small capacity battery
  • Expensive
  • The first and second gen Airpods didn’t fill all ear sizes since they came with fixed ear tip design.

Airpods proved to be a huge success as they reached a landmark of 100 million sales in 2020. It itself became a $10 billion business for Apple.

Later Apple launched other iterations of Airpods such as Airpods Pro and Airpods Max that came with noise cancellation, transparency and spatial audio features.

Thus, apart from iPhone sales being their cash cow, Apple has managed to make another revolution in the audio industry with Airpods after iTunes (later rebranded as Apple Music with a subscription model). Thus, I conclude that Apple has created a problem and managed to sell their own solution for their own products.

Currently Airpods range from the least expensive Airpods 2nd gen priced at ₹14,100 to ₹66,100 for the top of the line Airpods Max.

Bonus tip while buying Airpods:

If you have decided to buy any Airpods model other than Airpods Max from Apple’s official site, you will be able to add an engraving to add your personal touch at free of cost. The engraving could be a text of multiple languages including emojis as well.

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