[Music]
all right it's 2020 and it's impossible
to ignore why are so many companies
copying air pods so about four years ago
in 2016
Apple got on stage and announced the
iPhone 7 to the world which was the
first iPhone ever with courageously no
headphone jack and during that same
presentation on the same stage 27
minutes later they unveiled their newest
creation air pods a pair of completely
wireless headphones one earbud in each
ear in this convenient magnetic case
that pairs instantly with the iPhone and
solves everyone's headphone jack problem
see on stage they explained that if they
want to get to their vision of this
totally Wireless future where we don't
need cables or cords anymore they have
to get rid of the headphone jack and
eventually all the other rest of the
ports like the Lightning port - in
theory so this was the first brave
courageous step towards that future but
it really comes down to one word courage
the courage to move on do something new
that betters all of us but what they had
also actually just conveniently
rediscovered was that selling people the
solution to a problem that you just
created a half an hour earlier was a
brilliant way to make a ton of money on
top of already making a ton of money
like it's no secret that Apple makes
most of its profit from the iPhone and
then things connected to the iPhone
we've talked about the ecosystem before
they're smart they've made services like
iCloud Drive Apple pay Apple care all
these things that capitalize on the
massive customer base that is the iPhone
to make significantly more money from it
it's a smart business so this isn't a
new concept for Apple we're just now
adding dongles and wireless headphones
to that list but of course it doesn't
all work unless it's at least a pretty
good product and it was people love air
pods they were definitely not the first
wireless earbuds ever but the
combination of the convenience and the
little case they came in and putting
them right next to the iPhone and of
course how well they worked with it
instant pairing that whole thing made
them an instant hit and of course they
were the number one selling headphones
in the world a year later and so now
today it's estimated that with air pods
- and now air pods Pro and the world
charger and with the tens of millions of
sales Apple has made around eight
billion dollars from air pods eight
billion dollars that might not sound
like a huge percentage of Apple's
business because it's not but just for
some perspective if you broke that off
into a separate company and incorporated
a new head phone company air pods
Inc separate from Apple that company's
revenues by itself would be enough to be
a fortune 500 company and probably
somewhere in the middle of the pack more
than the bottom two or three hundred of
those and plus they're expected to jump
up again in 2020 as iPhone 5s and iPhone
6 owners continue to upgrade and the
headphone jack continues to disappear
so now as air pod sales are taking off
and going to orbit a lot of the
companies that were ridiculing Apple for
getting rid of the headphone jack along
with you and me
well they took a look at this again and
saw that they kind of wanted a piece of
that pie like this would be a silly
business decision not to get involved in
this huge new market that's basically
being created in front of their eyes so
they did the same thing Google well they
made a commercial calling out the
headphone jack
a year after Apple got rid of theirs
then literally the next pixel that came
out had no headphone jack and hey what
do you know
Google pixel buds now exists oneplus has
been known to take their occasional jabs
at Apple they made their remarks but two
years after Apple their new one +60 had
no headphone jack and their new wireless
bullets headphones appeared as a
convenient solution Huawei flagships
don't have headphone jacks anymore
either
but they'll gladly sell you their new
Huawei free buds to set you free of
wires razors phones also don't have
headphone jacks but you'll see their new
hammerheads wireless earbuds I feel like
I've seen that shape before Amazon will
sell you echo buds Microsoft has
announced their surface buds even the
essential phone from a company that
popped up on the map for one year and
made one phone with no headphone jack
also happened to make a hundred and
fifty dollar attachable HD headphone
jack adapter that is still listed on
their site to this day it actually has
nothing to do with air pod clones that's
that's just funny but even Samsung has
been one of the last major holdouts with
a headphone jack in the Galaxy S but
sure enough they got rid of that
headphone jack
on the Galaxy Note 10 and the S 20 I'm
afraid to say it but that's next and
they've been pushing galaxy buds that
conveniently charge right on the back of
the phone that you obviously got them
for and all these are various different
prices and have slightly different form
factors and feature sets to
differentiate them but they all
basically do the same thing which is
solve a problem that was just created
the headphone jack is quickly
disappearing it's becoming like an
enthusiast feature and you see headlines
about when a new headphone jack is
included in a phone because it's sort of
a noteworthy thing to see that again and
of course you now see pretty much every
major headphone company in the world
scrambling to make their best wireless
earbuds to also compete here so Audio
Technica makes a pair Sony makes a pair
I just got back from CES where I saw TCL
is making a pair this is it's got the
connection button on the back and flips
open like that and there's magnets that
hold the earbuds in like this is there
air pause competitor even these
companies that don't have a smart phone
to connect it to are just trying to sell
you something that you'd reasonably
consider buying over air pods for some
reason because this is a PI they got to
get it on and then on top of all that
there's the whole world of air pods
clones and if you're thinking no no wait
a minute these aren't clones they're all
you know they have their differentiating
features and they're slightly different
no I'm talking about the ones that
literally try to make themselves look
exactly like air pods in an effort to
basically convince you that you're
getting the same thing for less money
these are the ones that are not so well
intentioned you might have seen these
black ear pods floating around or some
variant of them or if you just google
ear pods clone there's a whole world of
tws I 500s being sold or drop ships from
various online retailers and there are
even companies out there right now you
might have already seen the singer feed
that are using stolen footage from my
ear pods Pro review and using them in
Instagram ads to try to convince you to
buy their fake drop shipped air pod
clones it's everywhere so the bottom
line is everyone pretty much everyone
capable of making headphones in some way
is now making small pocketable
completely wireless earbuds that seal up
in a case and connect to your phone so
this has some pros and cons of course we
all know the downsides which are if you
want to listen to music through wired
headphones you
to carry a dongle everywhere and often
the quality is substantially worse over
Bluetooth audio than wired but also
wireless audio is just not great yet
it's getting there but if you've ever
tried to edit a video or music with
wireless headphones you know how bad the
latency and the lag can get and you know
we're talking about it's just not quite
there yet but because of all that the
upside is the same thing that created
the downside which is that now everyone
is trying to make the best possible
wireless audio solution the best
possible wireless headphones to try to
beat air pots and we see this in the
forms of all different types of features
the reverse wireless charging on phones
the Razer hammerheads focusing on and
minimizing latency Sony's WF 1000 XM 3
doing active noise cancellation better
than any other earbud I've ever heard
and they pretty much all feature an
assistant now - there's Syrian air pods
which means there's Google assistant in
pixel buds and many others Bixby and
galaxy buds and Cortana in surface buds
in theory anyway when those come out it
means everyone's working towards a
better world of wireless so that maybe
this wireless future we've dreamed of
isn't so far off after all now I have no
excuse for they're like shameless
blatant earpods ripoffs like these are
just clearly trying to make a buck
shamelessly trying to take advantage of
people looking for a deal but the truth
really is air pods are Apple's most
impactful and successful product since
the original iPhone and who wouldn't
want to copy that thanks for watching
catch you guys the next one pace