[nukem222]

I can't say I claim to have heard of ANC before, but the rest of these reasons to purchase apple headphones are true of the $20 chinese knockoffs I bought on amazon. And they come in a cute orange/salmon color rather than blanched.

The only perceptual difference is that apple special-cases airpod management to ease switching of devices. They trash their own product by making such consumer-hostile ux obvious.