Six years of AirPods: How they became one of Apple’s ‘hottest’ products of all-time

Five minutes. That’s all Apple took to talk about AirPods when it unveiled the first true wireless earbuds in September 2016. Almost three months later, the first-generation AirPods were released on December 19. Fast forward to 2022 — six years after they went on sale — the Apple AirPods have been a bonafide, runaway success for the folks sitting in Apple Park in Cupertino. The AirPods have become synonymous with true wireless earbuds and have spawned, driven and sustained a whole new genre of products that were there but didn’t really exist.
Keep it simple, silly
They say it’s so simple to be happy but it’s so difficult to be simple. Apple did the most difficult thing: keeping it simple. Minimalistic design, featherweight and audio performance make you nod in appreciation every second day when you listen to that one particular song that just sounds incredible on the AirPods.
One of the biggest reasons for the success of the AirPods has been its sheer simplicity. If you are an iPhone user, then there’s something magical about the effortless and seamless connectivity they offer. Open the case, tap on the iPhone a couple of times and that’s it — you are set. Once the AirPods are linked to an Apple ID then they just connect with the iPad, Apple Watch, or Mac without the user having to do anything.

There’s a reason why Apple continues to top the wireless earbuds charts quarter after quarter. The AirPods are also a sort of status symbol. A person walking down the street could be wearing the latest earbuds from Sony, Samsung or Jabra but the recognisability of the AirPods is unmatched. When you see Neymar or LeBron James wearing a pair of true wireless earbuds, you just know that it is the AirPods.
A criticism levelled at Apple is that it has refused to change the design or offered more colours with the AirPods. When you have a product that is instantly recognisable by almost everyone across the world, why alter the design? When you reach the promised land, you really don’t want to alter the route because it was the “same”, do you?
Billions that lead to millions and billions
For Apple, the AirPods work as an accessory that an iPhone user must have. There are over a billion iPhones that are being used across the world. That is like a billion users who can — or Apple wants them to — buy the AirPods. And that’s exactly what has happened. The initial response to the AirPods was good but not that great. It is estimated that in 2017, Apple shipped around 15 million units of the AirPods and followed it up with an almost 130% increase the next year to 35 million units. By any standards, this was an excellent return for any company. You would’ve thought that the next big AirPods Pro would see a big announcement but no, Apple surprised everyone and did a ‘silent’ press release launch of the AirPods Pro in 2019. Such was the confidence in the fate of the AirPods Pro that there was no stage time given to it at all. And the AirPods Pro hit all the right notes for Apple.

The AirPods Pro became the catalyst that catapulted the AirPods into a different planet. In 2020, it was estimated that 114 million units of the AirPods were shipped by Apple. It was what the social media populace would refer to as “Peak AirPods”. The AirPods sales have declined — Apple still remains number one — in the last few quarters but watch out for the AirPods Pro 2 effect on it as they are bound to be a blockbuster of a product for Apple.
Millions of AirPods have been sold since their launch and have filled Apple’s coffers nicely. Apple’s wearables, home and accessories division — which includes the AirPods — contributed $41 billion in revenue in 2022. The Apple Watch and the AirPods certainly are the biggest contributors to all that moolah.
One of Tim Cook’s biggest success stories
Under Tim Cook — since 2011 — Apple has ventured into quite a few new products and the Apple Watch and the AirPods have to be the biggest success stories. There has been the HomePod as well but it is still not — in fact not even close — the go-to product in the smart speaker category. The AirPods certainly are as for most iPhone users, it is the default choice of true wireless earbuds. Either you have them and completely swear by them or you want them so that you can swear by them — that’s the AirPods for most iPhone users. Cook called them a “cultural phenomenon” in 2017 and since then the AirPods have become one of Apple’s best-selling products in recent times.
What Apple also did with the AirPods is also made the wired earphones rather redundant — at least the low-end models. Apple first removed the headphone jack — received a lot of backlash — in 2016 and then removed the EarPods also — more backlash ensued. Yet, it turned out to be quite a fantastic piece of a business decision. And also ‘inspired’ other brands to totally jump on the bandwagon of true wireless earbuds. The market is littered with earbuds that look like AirPods, and try to sound like AirPods, but fall short. AirPods changed the way people use accessories with the phone and also transformed a product category as few other products have.