I think the W1 stuff will be a very short-lived product. People don't want, or even like wireless headphones/earbuds because of the short battery life, and Bluetooth is lossy and typically laggy. People who might be on the go (eg fitness) also don't want to lose them (I imagine lost earpods will be very common on public transit.)
I'll give Apple a little bit of credit however, while I think removing the 3.5mm headphone jack on devices is a completely incompetent solution, at least they didn't just remove it entirely and provide no alternative connection method. But there were several alternatives that were not completely stupid for waterproofing (eg optical connections held by magnets) or just straight up using USB-C. The fact that the iPhone 6S has a 3.5mm headphone jack and survives being immersed in water was proof enough that they didn't need to do this at all.
That said, I feel that people are going to be rightfully pissed off having to replace ear pods at $160 a pop.
I think I know why you don't have VP or Marketing after your name. I could not disagree more with your stmt "People don't want, or even like wireless headphones/earbuds because of the short battery life, and Bluetooth is lossy and typically laggy". You may be speaking for a smaller minority but you analysis is way off.
The issue with battery life is taken care of in the design -- with the charging case & the fact that your get 5 hrs use right out of the case. Plain ole bluetooth does have the problems you speak of, but this is not POBT, this is Apple enhanced BT via the W1 chip. Have you read anything other than some nonsense about an ear pod costing $160 to replace -- only if you lost both and the case. They are $69 each to replace an ear pod.
Do a little research and maybe see if you can find a pair to try -- I predict you will be pissed off about making such an uniformed post.
P.S. I use Bose 30 over ear cans cause I like the noise cancellation they provide. If I were in the market for wireless ear buds Apple's product would be it -- I would like to see a way to deal with volume control without having to use Siri.
No controls is a deal breaker for me. I can't imagine how silly it must feel to say "Siri, Volume down", followed by "Siri, next track" in the subway or in the supermarket. I have absolutely no idea why Apple is so persistent on voice control.
I will probably buy the X when (if) they come out and have decent sound quality.
Can't you just say "volume up", "next track"?
even better "lower", "up", "next", etc.
Apple watch anyone? All of the controls are conveniently located on your wrist.
So a $300 remote control is required to use $160 headphones?
Great solution for the mass market there.
Not required, but convenient. Just like a $750 phone is convenient to make a call.
When the bundled solutions of using Siri (I can't imagine many people will do this, I wouldn't) or using your phone (wireless should make us less tethered to the phone unit, not more) are so inconvenient I'd say Apple have a significant functionality gap with their product, and a $300 additional purchase is not a reasonable solution.
I won't be buying EarPods until they have volume and skip functionality that equals their competitors. My BackBeat Fit wireless headset has on-unit controls and it's over two years old.
Jumping back into this months-old thread for the benefit of future generations who may come across it through a web search...
I use my Solo3 about 3 days per week on average. On those days I use them 30-45 minutes on the way to work, and 30-45 minutes on the way home 12 hours later.
With this duty cycle, starting from fully-charged the battery life was (drum roll please):
31.5 hours
So, less than Apple's advertised 40 hours, but still amazing. I don't know if using them more often or for longer stretches would improve or diminish battery life, or if the duty cycle affects it at all, but it seems they'll need recharging so infrequently that I'm not going to worry about it.
Comments
I think I know why you don't have VP or Marketing after your name. I could not disagree more with your stmt "People don't want, or even like wireless headphones/earbuds because of the short battery life, and Bluetooth is lossy and typically laggy". You may be speaking for a smaller minority but you analysis is way off.
The issue with battery life is taken care of in the design -- with the charging case & the fact that your get 5 hrs use right out of the case. Plain ole bluetooth does have the problems you speak of, but this is not POBT, this is Apple enhanced BT via the W1 chip. Have you read anything other than some nonsense about an ear pod costing $160 to replace -- only if you lost both and the case. They are $69 each to replace an ear pod.
Do a little research and maybe see if you can find a pair to try -- I predict you will be pissed off about making such an uniformed post.
P.S. I use Bose 30 over ear cans cause I like the noise cancellation they provide. If I were in the market for wireless ear buds Apple's product would be it -- I would like to see a way to deal with volume control without having to use Siri.
I won't be buying EarPods until they have volume and skip functionality that equals their competitors. My BackBeat Fit wireless headset has on-unit controls and it's over two years old.
Jumping back into this months-old thread for the benefit of future generations who may come across it through a web search...
I use my Solo3 about 3 days per week on average. On those days I use them 30-45 minutes on the way to work, and 30-45 minutes on the way home 12 hours later.
With this duty cycle, starting from fully-charged the battery life was (drum roll please):
31.5 hours
So, less than Apple's advertised 40 hours, but still amazing. I don't know if using them more often or for longer stretches would improve or diminish battery life, or if the duty cycle affects it at all, but it seems they'll need recharging so infrequently that I'm not going to worry about it.