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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

There are plenty of Bluetooth headphones beyond AirPods. I'm sure they aren't even the most popular ones used with iPhones.

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Yes, there are, and no, they may not be (1)

However, chances are they are the Bluetooth headphones Apple makes the most money on, and that early adopters of the new iPhone are the most likely to buy them.

Inducing (extra) demand for Bluetooth headphones and then leaving the market for such headphones to others in a period where your most 'able and willing to spend' customers enter your shop isn't the best of ideas.

(1) (nitpicking) it wouldn't completely surprise me if they were, though, because Apple has exactly one product, whereas its competition tends to create zillions of 'different' products.

I've seen plenty of iPhone 7s, and very few air pods. They don't even seem like a good idea.

I personally got conductive wireless headphones and really like them. Not Apple, of course.

I find AirPods to be one of the most amazing devices I've owned. Using them is a pure joy. No joke. From the feeling of the case opening and closing, to the sound of them dropping into the case, to the instant pairing when you put them in your ear.

Nice to know. I've still not seen many in the wild, while I've seen plenty of misc brand wireless headphones.

Conductive is the future I think, I'm never sticking anything in my ear again.

the hedging might have something to do with the W1 chip[0] improvements in the AirPods that provided for fast and consistent bluetooth pairing that Apple cared about more so than relying upon 3rd party bluetooth experience in a headphone connector-less flagship phone.

[0] https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/12/apple-w1-chip-how-it-works/

What makes you so sure?

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