slprescott

rogifan_new said:

So this issue gets a free battery replacement but the so-called "touch-disease" requires customers to pay for Apple to fix it? Is that because it wasn't brought to Apple's attention by a Chinese consumer watchdog group?

No, it's because of Apple's assertion that touch-disease stems from user error -- dropping the phone multiple times on a hard surface -- and therefore Apple is not liable for this as a manufacturing defect.

Being dropped multiple times on a hard surface is not analogous to a "disease". It's an "injury" caused by user behavior. Let's place blame where is actually lies.

I don't understand why Apple has two lines of headphones: Beats, Apple

I guess the answer is "brand loyalty" -- there are many people who like the Beats brand, and Apple wants to keep them in the family.  But the purist in me says that Apple need to reconcile these overlapping product lines into a single (and single-branded) offering.

Just in time for last-minute Christmas shopping hysteria:  "I need AirPods!  Where can I get them?!"  I remember -- not so fondly -- the early days of searching Apple stores for Apple Pencil.

I am curious about Apple's ambitions for the AirPods as a 'platform'.

That is:
  iPhone      ... is much more than a phone
  Watch       ... is much more than a watch

So maybe:
  AirPods    ... will grow to be much more than earbuds

Apple likes to use a familiar form-factor as the user's entry-point...  and then expand it with greater functionality.  Their naming of the product as AirPODS -- not AirBUDS -- sort of implies that they envision the product having broad functionality (like an iPod).