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AirPods: Their Unexpected Success
Apple’s wireless headsets, which were initially considered quite ugly and expensive, are now everywhere: how was it possible?
Apple’s history has been crossed by many products that at the time of their presentation had made more than a few noses twitch, but that over time have turned out to be huge commercial successes: from the iPod to the iPhone, which have changed the music and telephony market respectively, to the various iPad and Apple Watch, which in their way have created from scratch a slice of the market that was basically non-existent before their appearance. There’s another product that we don’t talk about much and that represents Apple’s ability to create objects that go beyond their simple function and become status symbols: AirPods.
On September 7, 2016, Apple presented its two new iPhone models: the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, at an event in San Francisco. The biggest news of those two new phones was the disappearance of the mini-jack audio output, replaced by a Lightning output. Basically, anyone who wanted to use a normal headset with an audio jack would have to use an adapter, or settle for the headphones included in the iPhone package. At the same time as the audio jack disappeared, however, Apple also introduced a new product, designed exclusively for iPhone…