Yesterday Apple introduced AirPods. What a mistake.
While I appreciate the uniqueness of these headphones, I predict that in a year or two, they’ll have gone the way of the gold Apple Watch Edition.
You know how you’re walking or running and one of your earbuds falls out? You grab the cord, reel it in, and put it back in your ear. And then you go on walking or running. With AirPods, one of them will fall out, and you’ll watch as someone steps on it, or as it falls down a subway grating.
I can also see that, as you get on a bus or subway, someone grabs at one of your AirPods to snatch it, and you’re listening only to one channel of music for the rest of the day.
It is admirable, nay, courageous, to introduce a product this unique. But it simply won’t work. There is an advantage to having a wire between the two ends.
A lot of people are criticizing the 5-hour battery life. That’s not really a problem, since the case contains a battery, and brings to total battery life to 24 hours. I have a Bluetooth headset (one ear only, for calls) that works like that; its case has a battery, giving it several days of battery life. It’s a good idea.
No, the real problem is the fact that they’ll be so easy to lose. I can’t understand why Apple would release a product like this. Unless it’s just because they can.