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Comment by deanmoriarty | Hacker News Reader

Honest question: how can folks justify spending $250+tax on a device that in just a year or two of significant usage will not be usable anymore due to degraded battery?

I was gifted a pair and after two years the battery lasts less than one hour in playback mode, and just a few minutes in call mode. What a disappointment. Am I expected to spend another $280?!

I also do not want to spend $50+ for a third party battery replacement. At least with the iPhone I can buy one, use it for 6 years and change the battery a couple times, making it a good purchase.

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I use them everyday while working, for multiple hours per day and can expense them. They work better than other bluetooth headsets I've tried, and the noise cancelling is excellent in loud environments.

I'm willing to pay a premium for the convenience and seamless pairing to other Apple products I already have (Apple TV, macbook, iphone).

To be clear, I would pay even $350 for them, if only I could remove the $5 battery and replace it cleanly. Or even bring it to an Apple Store and get a new battery for $30. It just feels such a robbery otherwise.

New batteries are $49 https://support.apple.com/airpods/repair

Per earbud! If it was per the entire set it would obviously solve all the problems I have with this product.

No, I won't use podswap.

Other than my phone I'm not sure there is another device I own that has given me more benefit per $ than airpods.

Thought experiment: what’s the highest price Apple could charge for them, after which you’d pass on the purchase?

I'd say under $500AUD I would still pay for them assuming they were the only product in their class. But at say $400 I'd opt to pick a competitors product.

The more you use something the more it makes sense to spend on it, assuming your extra spending is getting you something. If you used them significantly for two years, it sounds like you got a lot of value out of them.

To be clear, I would pay even $350 for them, if only I could remove the $5 battery and replace it cleanly. Or even bring it to an Apple Store and get a new battery for $30, in a similar iPhone workflow. It just feels such a robbery otherwise.

I have used mine 2 hours per day for about 2 years and the battery still lasts about 2.5 hours of talk time.

I pretty much only use them to listen to audio books or meetings, since music leaves them dead for meetings.

There's no other product that does what it does as well as it does it.

It's a no-brainer purchase for me and I won't even blink at replacing them if they're ever lost.

I basically can't imagine my life without them (walking around the city, workouts, playing sports, airports/planes, etc). I can imagine this is much less important if you live in a suburb and mostly commute via car or don't have physically active hobbies.

Ultimately yes it does suck that they're expensive but the alternative of not having them sucks way more IMO.

Thought experiment: what’s the highest price Apple could charge for them, after which you’d pass on the purchase?

The absolute highest? I think they could go as high as $500 and I can still justify it.

Of course, this opens up a huge price window for competitors to occupy so at some point it makes more sense to get something cheaper to get 80% of the functionality. But this also goes to show how much I value that final 20%.

At the price of $250 today, there really isn't any legitimate competition IMO.

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