[Nullabillity]

And suddenly Apple's usual marketing strategy makes a whole lot more sense.

Price it high enough that nobody who has to care about money would buy it, and make it crappy enough that nobody who cares about quality would buy it.

And, apparently, it seems the people who aren't filtered by that will say anything is the second coming of christ as long as it comes in a shiny enough box.

[lowtolerance]

$160 for a decent pair of Bluetooth headphones puts the AirPods pretty much right in line with similar products. And while the audio quality isn't the best on the market, it's certainly not "crappy", especially for wireless headphones, and the microphone is the best in its class by miles. Also, the box it comes in is decidedly not shiny.

Anyway, I know shitting on Apple is the cool thing to do on tech forums, so great job going for the easy upvote with such a cynical comment - I'm sure you'll reap that sweet karma.

But, you're overlooking what makes AirPods such a satisfying product to use: they are incredibly convenient. They're small enough to carry in your watch pocket, and using them is as simple as popping them out of the case and into your ears. Nothing on the market so thoroughly considers the experience of using headphones, and that obviously counts for something.

[eridius]

> make it crappy enough that nobody who cares about quality would buy it.

This is a remarkably bizarre thing to say in response to a 98% customer satisfaction rating.

[polotics]

I do not find it bizarre, we are talking about 98% of the customers who actually bought the product, despite its low sound quality.

[eridius]

Your theory relies on nearly 100% of consumers having a priori knowledge about the quality of the product, sufficient to decide if they want to purchase it or not without having actually tried it yet.

Also, if your theory was true, then why does any product anywhere have a less than near-perfect satisfaction rating? If consumers can have magical knowledge about AirPods, why can't they have the same knowledge about all the other products they purchase?

And finally, the sound quality isn't bad. It's better than earbuds. If you're comparing it to a high-end pair of headphones, sure, it's not going to be as good, but if you're comparing it to products in the same category as AirPods then it holds up pretty well.

[valuearb]

Since when is AAC "low quality"? Especially for bluetooth headphones?

[stcredzero]

And suddenly Apple's usual marketing strategy makes a whole lot more sense.

Price it high enough that nobody who has to care about money would buy it, and make it crappy enough that nobody who cares about quality would buy it.

Turns out that the Beats acquisition was the right move!

[MBCook]

That's an off a lot of ad hominem attacks for a single post.