How does this compare to Apple Watch? Sounds to me like this is a fairly big upside surprise. If you were given the choice beforehand, which of the two would you want to have managed?
I would have guessed Watch but it looks like I'm wrong. Pretty astonishing that people will throw an extra quarter on top of the price of their phone for this, especially given that I've used noise cancelling headphones before. My guess would have been that removing the wire would only make a small difference.
I guess the market is there to discover this kind of thing. Kudos to Apple for finding this.
A couple of key things make the experience fundamentally different from traditional headphones, for me:
- I can carry the little dental-floss-case around with me everywhere in my pocket. Even if I don't plan on using them, I have them there just in case. Especially when it comes to noise-cancelling, this has a major effect on day-to-day life for me as unexpected use cases pop up.
- It's not just the lack of a wire: one entire step is eliminated from starting and stopping using your headphones. You just put them in your ears, or take them out. There's no messing with a cord or even a menu on your phone. Something easy is made effortless, which matters.
- Once in, they stay out of the way so well that you can leave them in even if you're not using them. Then when you do unexpectedly decide to watch a video, or take a call, your phone is already plugged directly into your headspace, no extra step necessary.
- All the little details. The fact that taking one out of your ear pauses your media and placing it back in resumes it is essential for wearing them passively while out and about; ordering a coffee, etc. No fumbling with your phone for a pause button; the social signal for "I'm listening" is paired with what you want your media to be doing at that moment.
All of this combines into an experience so frictionless it's mindblowing.
One more thing to consider, Apple Watch works with iPhones only. It might have changed now, but given how integrated with apple ecosystem the watch is, i doubt it is anything but a weak neutered version of the iphone+apple watch experience.
Airpods, on the other hand, work great with Android. The only neutered “features” are those that i dont consider vital at all (like being able to rename the display name of your airpods that gets sent to devices attempting to pair with them).
I would have guessed Watch but it looks like I'm wrong. Pretty astonishing that people will throw an extra quarter on top of the price of their phone for this, especially given that I've used noise cancelling headphones before. My guess would have been that removing the wire would only make a small difference.
I guess the market is there to discover this kind of thing. Kudos to Apple for finding this.