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Comment by firloop | Hacker News Reader

>Third, we knew we had an unprecedented number of new products to ramp during the quarter and predicted that supply constraints would gate our sales of certain products during Q1.

> ... AirPods and MacBook Air were also constrained.

(emphasis mine) Interesting that Apple still can't manage to make AirPods, a 2 year old product, fast enough. I wonder why that is.

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Also interesting that AirPods are still the new hotness with plenty of people. Usually the interest goes down after launch, but my anecdotal experience suggests that, at least where I live, the interest has certainly risen.

I bought a few AirPods as gifts this year. I think it comes down to iPhone user's not upgrading (due to cost) and instead looking towards accessories for their existing devices.

My wife should be due for a phone upgrade but instead she got the battery replacement a few months ago and AirPods for Christmas.

I think maybe it's something like the fashion adoption curve: first almost everyone thinks something looks radical and weird, but a few people adopt it; then a few more think it looks acceptable-enough, then it becomes slowly more mainstream, then it is mainsteam, then it looks old-fashioned, then no-one uses it anymore.

I know that in my own case I think that AirPods look ridiculous and stupid, and I can't believe anyone allows himself to be seen in public with them. But I think that less now than I did two years ago, and presumably in another two years I'll think that less still. No doubt in a decade I'll think that they don't look dumb at all, and maybe someday I'll have AirPods or something similar. And then one day I'll quit wearing them, because they're out of fashion again.

Heck, digital watches were popular for about 15–20 years, right? Maybe AirPods will someday be looked at as the digital watches of the early 2000s.

Airpods were arguably the best mobile innovation in the last few years but the tech media and commentariat were too busy griping about the headphone jack to really notice. So the spread has been steady instead of like the iPad where everyone got one the first couple years.

Tucking my Apple Admirer badge under the keyboard for a moment, they can't make the promised wireless charging pad at all.

Tim Cook is one of the finest CEOs of his generation, but he cannot walk on water, and neither can his company. They do some things well, and on others, their reach exceeds their grasp.

You're thinking of the AirPower not the AirPods.

I am well aware of the difference, my point is that Apple is unevenly great. They have hits and misses, they do brilliant things with the supply chain... And they have some clunkers.

It’s not JUST AirPods.

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