O n May 11 2020, the crypto world experienced the phenomena knows as Bitcoin halving . For those who are still a little looney-toons regarding this phenomena, here's the lowdown . Moral of the story is that, as the Bitcoin supply decreased and it's 21 million market cap slowly approached, it was widely accepted that the low supply and high demand will increase the price of the cryptocurrency back to its previous highs. Basic business right? Wrong! Source: Equity Trust Company BTC prices actually fell and after briefly holding steady, are only just rising above the 10000 USD range. Surprise eh? Well, we are not done yet. Because while the most valuable crypto coin wasn't showing it's expected gains, some other cryptocurrencies shot to outer space. There was no SpaceX rocket nor a Tesla Roadster involved. These "altcoins" bumped up in their market value thanks to the entire underlying system of cryptocurrency: investor speculation. But what exactly are these ...
...Like the AirPods 1?
There have been many things in life that have horrified my friend Bryan, but none so more than realizing the iPhone 7 was missing one key element of any standard phone when it was first released: the headphone jack.
This gave him many more sleepless nights than when waiting for his AS level results. You see, Bryan was as entangled in the Apple ecosystem as Flynn Rider was in Rapunzel's hair. He had Macbooks, the Mac Mini, the iPhone 6s and well, the traditional Earpods. And being a gargantuan battery eater, he always had an assortment of power banks, with obvious lightning cables. The only non-Apple thing in his house, besides his clothes or food or books...was the Razer earbuds he used when he preferred quality sound ( even if I told him they were basically gamer related earphones)
But the decision of Apple left him stumped. No headphone jack meant he couldn't connect his pair of Razer earphones. He would have to use the tiny in-box dongle which, he begrudgingly admitted, would have been lost within minutes of him opening the package.
However, Apple, being Apple, was nothing if not thorough and to entice people into the entire concept of wirelessness ( even if we wouldn't see wireless charging for an iPhone till yet another product cycle) released the Airpods. I wouldn't call them the first truly wireless earphones, but they were the first well known truly wireless earphones. It was a typical Apple product strategy: charge a high price to customers for something gimmicky, just because they decided not to implement a headphone jack.
And during the initial few weeks of product launch, it was really considered a gimmick. Tiny toothbrush styled wireless jewelry that looked just like the standard pair of EarPods without the wires. People ridiculed its design, the ease with which you could lose it and the fact that for around USD 160, you could get much much better earphones.
Nevertheless, when the reviews started coming in and consumers realized that this was not a bad buy after all. If you owned and Apple device like a Mac or iPhone, simply opening the case made you connect to your device. You could even see the charge percentage and even connect your Airpods to multiple devices. So in case you were watching The Grand Tour and your Mother was calling you on your mobile, you could easily answer your mother's call without hearing James May shouting "Clarkson!!". It also had the auto-pause feature, where removing just one earbud would pause you daily Spotify jam. To do this day it has one of the most reliable connections to a mobile device and despite having the traditional Earpods shape, it sounded much better ( which is good enough for most users). Yes, it didn't have changeable earbuds and the aftermarket foam or sponges severely hindered the ability of a solitary Airpod to fit in its allocated case. But for a lot of people it turned out to be their first foray into wireless headphones and this was good enough for them. For Apple users, it was a godsend, for the Android phones the only issue was that you had to physically press a button to connect. And for the people whose ears were made for the finish of the Airpods, their gym time became much more enjoyable. I have always been generally abhorrent of Apple products but the Airpods is one of only 2 Apple devices that I would wish to own.
Apple's new gamble had paid off and it set the template for several manufacturers to follow suit. Huawei, Xiaomi, Google, etc. all followed in Apple's footsteps: releasing notched headphone jack-less devices and then complimentary wireless headphones. Even established manufacturers like Sennheiser, B&O among others, released their own truly wireless earbuds. While no one really challenged the might of the Airpods, they improved on several aspects like sound quality, design and the sheer ability to stay in your ear. However, the AirPods always jumped ahead because of its unflinching connectivity, simple operation, and its unique integration into the Air Ecosystem.
For most people it was the question: "Do you want good sound but poor connectivity and buggy app or do you want decent sound but amazing connectivity?". More people chose the former instead of the latter simply because
a) Not many of us our Audiophiles and decent sound is more than good enough for us.
b) What is the point of having amazing Surround Sound... yadda yadda yadda... when it doesn't work all the time?
However, when the Airpods 2 finally come out in approximately 2019, they will be entering a much more crowded market with more of the big boys learning from their errors and new young blood joining the fray due to sheer bang for your buck.
No wireless earbud could trump the AirPods seamless integration into the Apple environment. But 99% of the manufacturers know that if they get the connectivity right, they could relegate the AirPods to the 'Forgotten' Bin. Newer technologies like Bluetooth apt-X connection ( or something like that) are pushing more and more potential AirPod customers to other brands. And there is the fact that the AirPods looks more like the head of an electric toothbrush than any other competitor ( at least those who don't blatantly copy Apple's design). Some of the newer wireless earbuds come in more different colors and designs than even Apple's iPhone XR which is a great plus. You want color on an AirPod, you better learn to pay to aftermarket brands.
The AirPods 2 will also have the standard in-ear shape of the AirPod 1 and the EarPod which unfortunately doesn't fit everyone. Some of them have easy tap connectivity to Virtual Assistants. The Google Pixel Buds and its successor could possibly have better language translation. An instead of being solely controlled by its virtual assistant ( like the hopeless Siri for the AirPods) many now have an amalgamation of controls built into them. As technology progresses all of the AirPod 1's benefits would be ridiculed by its competitors and even if the AirPod 2 improves upon them, the differences between Apple and other brands won't be as wide as the Grand Canyon. And don't forget the price because many new entrees are providing the same decent sound for comparatively ridiculously cheap prices.
What the AirPod 2 needs to do is innovate to charge similar commanding status, or just provide a much better package for a much cheaper price. The simple factor of desirability for an Apple product is not as high as it was a few years ago. One only has to look at the fledgling sales of the iPhone X and iPhone XS to get a better view of what happens when a company fails to reach out and understand its customers. This is one of the reasons why the XR is selling so well. This is one of the reasons why Microsoft just dethroned Apple at the summit of the World.
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