A Historical Background on Apple's Sound Direction: From the First iPod to AirPods Max

(October 23, 2001) In 2001, Steve Jobs introduced the iPod to the world. The company's first step into the world of portable audio devices is as much as five gigabytes for your music on the built-in hard drive and up to 10 hours of battery life. On Jobs' assignment, the new product was developed by a team that included hardware engineer Tony Fidel, hardware engineer Michael Duay, he had a hand in developing the device's battery, and design engineer Johnny Ive. And the team was headed by John Rubenstein. You probably know the last two, or at least have heard of them.



The release of the player came eight and a half months after the launch of the iTunes online library. (January 9, 2001.). And at that time, the First Generation iPod came with simple white and gray headphones that had no specific name.





Video version (here is the AirPods Max test)



A little earlier, in 2000, Apple acquired the developer of a player for desktops - SoundJam - and released it under the new name iTunes. Along the way, the digital service iTunes Store was launched, which became the sole leader in music sales in the United States by April 2008, surpassing WalMart in this indicator, and two years and ten months later, in February 2010, the service already took the WORLD first place ... After the first three months of 2011, the company reported the amount of revenue from sales in the iTunes Store, which amounted to about $ 1.4 billion.



For $ 200 million in 2013, Apple acquired Topsy Labs Inc., a social media analyst company that specializes in tracking Twitter trends, but the appetite of large corporations for takeovers never fades.



And on May 28, 2014, Apple acquired Beats Electronics for $ 3 billion. But why wasn't it Bose? No Marshall? Not Audio-Technica? Namely Beats? Even then, many realized that Apple was primarily interested in the streaming success of the service from Dr. Dre, and not his headphones.



Back in 2013, digital album sales were down 6 percent, while music streaming services were up 32 percent - so it was a smart move.



On July 28, 2014, Apple acquired Swell for $ 30 million, a podcast service with machine learning elements and a recommendation system based on user interests, likes, listen time and swipes. After the acquisition, Apple received the necessary patents and developments, and key employees began working on their own Apple podcast service. The Swell app has been closed.



In January 2015, the British startup Semetric was bought. Their Musicmetric service collected statistics on sales, social media activity, digital downloads, and more. Such information could be of interest to various music labels, agents and others.



Pop Archive was purchased two years later. The company's main product was the Audiosear service. ch is a full-text search and recommendation engine for podcasts and radio that provides the best podcast experience with automatic information about them. Audiosear platform. ch turned speech into text, indexed and analyzed the loaded data, and then gave tags to them, allowing them to be broken down into categories (topics, people, recommendations).



The latest high-profile acquisition that is directly or indirectly related to music was the purchase of Shazam - September 24, 2018 for $ 400 million.



So, if you want to make money on music, you don't need to invent a new musical genre. Just create a service that Apple or a competitor wants to buy later.



But back to the iPod and headphones. Under the iPod Touch brand, Apple began selling a stripped-down version of the iPhone without a cellular module, but also retained the iPod Classic - both types of devices were popular.



According to Apple, 350 million players had been sold by September 2012. And according to CNN, in 2011, the iPod's share of the player market was already 70%, but Apple should have understood already then that mp3-players as a class of devices did not have long left. But smartphones and online services became more and more popular.



Since 2009, iPod sales have declined every fiscal quarter, but Apple continued to release the iPod as a standalone device until 2017, and it wasn't until 2017 that the iPod Touch - a stripped-down iPhone - became the only iPod in the company's current portfolio.



However, Apple's efforts to strengthen its position in the market of online services and services, the development of Bluetooth and related technologies, as well as the actual move of the iPod to the iPhone made it possible for the company's management not to doubt the demand for wireless headphones, which were presented on December 13, 2016. AirPods quickly gained popularity and became the second best-selling Apple product of any device, according to Above Avalon.



In addition, the author of the study notes that headphones have become a cultural phenomenon; a product that demonstrates Apple's superiority in this category of products and will do so for decades. In support of his words, the author gives examples with relevant memes - for example, “Sorry, I can't hear you because of my AirPods,” when a person wearing headphones is exponentially not paying attention to his surroundings. These memes became popular at the end of December, when many people received headphones as a gift. That, along with the overwhelming number of searches for AirPods, according to the researcher, suggests that Apple's product has become part of mainstream culture, although many reviewers did not believe in the success of the headphones.



But, does sound quality care about Apple's potential audience? The researchers surveyed a group of buyers with different ears. The AirPods prioritized comfort and fit (68%) and ease of use (56%). The sound quality was of the least interest to buyers of Apple headphones, only 41% of respondents noted this point as important.



By comparison, those who bought Bose headphones placed the most value on sound (72% of those surveyed out of a sample of 200 people). And whether AirPods Max sound good or not, most likely their customers are also not so important - and all AirPods Max that are delivered to us are sold out very quickly. Until the appearance of virtual queues for several weeks in advance - if, of course, you want to buy them at the recommended price, and not even more expensive.



Development of AirPods Max began at least four years ago. This became clear from the twitter of ex-Apple designer Dave Dinesh, who wrote on the day of the announcement of the AirPods Max: “the last product I worked on has finally come out and signed a non-disclosure agreement.” When asked when he signed the agreement, Dave replied, "about 4 years ago."



In an interview, AirPods Max noted that the headband can bend 285% of its original shape to accommodate various head shapes. The wiring connecting the left and right bowls runs in a telescopic mechanism. And in design, they started from a simple idea: two bowls should be connected with a strong but flexible tape. Based on this, both the design of the device and the materials for it were selected.



It was rumored that the headphones would have interchangeable headband straps and sensors that would allow the headphones to be worn on either side without disassembling right or left. And perhaps in the next generation of Max, both of these chips will be implemented - in the 2020 version of the headphones they simply did not have time to be properly implemented before the release.



Many reviewers and ordinary buyers of AirPods Max note the unsuccessful case. The designer of this case stated that:



“Many of the cases that come with modern headphones are very bulky. We travel a lot today, so we understand how important it is to fit headphones into a backpack. Our cover is very effective in this respect. ”



“Even though the cover does not cover the headband, its construction and materials are strong enough not to worry about it. What's more, the headphones can be easily removed from the case by pulling on the headband. ”



However, the AirPods Max is not designed to be folded, and despite the fact that the case is really compact, users note that the headphones take up a lot of space in any bag to carry. Parts of the AirPods Max that are not protected by the case quickly become covered with scratches, which makes you think about an alternative case - Apple itself may present such an accessory for additional money.



The headphone option with light-colored ear cushions has been criticized for the fact that the white material gets dirty quickly and the headphones look dirty after a few days of use.

On the functional side.



The user does not have the ability to manually adjust the equalizer and adjust the sound for himself. Instead, the AirPods Max has an Adaptive Equalizer. It uses microphones and sensors to analyze the sound environment as well as the position of the headphones on the head and corrects low and mid frequencies to achieve rich sound.



The media praised the technology of surround sound - this is not for connoisseurs of pure sound, but according to some publications, the function makes the sound more fun and the watching of films more immersive. Currently, this function only works with iPhone and iPad.



And of course Apple tries to support only its ecosystem as much as possible. These headphones work with Android devices, but you will lose some features like spatial sound. True, I do not think that those who do not use iPhones will wear AirPods Max, given that even apple adherents did not all appreciate these headphones.



A lot of people didn't like the fact that the AirPods Max don't have a power button and won't turn off until they run out of power. If left unused for five minutes, the headphones will go into power saving mode. Leaving the earbuds out of the case for 72 hours or in the case for 18 hours automatically turns on “low power mode”, which turns off Bluetooth and device search mode. If you put the headphones in the case, the energy saving mode turns on instantly.



As for the source where Apple fans usually get their music - iTunes, then there is the maximum quality - 256-kbps AAC. This quality became available to users back in 2007, since then Apple has not changed anything. Albums marked “mastered for iTunes” have an extended dynamic range, but do not reach the quality of lossless recordings.



By the way, they also have no protection from moisture. If you get caught in the rain, you set up to bring Apple another 63 thousand rubles. Or stock up on a waterproof bag or backpack in advance.



AirPods Max comes with 9 microphones, 8 of which are noise canceling. And they are also used for the functioning of the sound transparency mode. This means that you hear what is happening around you, and you understand from which side the sound comes to you. And we have already mentioned the H1 chip, which, according to Apple, can reduce the audio latency in games by 30% compared to the previous double-one chip, and so - this is still not enough, the delay does not allow you to adequately act in the game or work comfortably in wireless mode.



The only port on the headphones is lightning. Even die-hard Apple fans didn't like it, many would prefer USB-C. There is no minijack. But, as an accessory, Apple offers a Lightning-3.5 mm cable for wired connection to devices. The price of the cable is $ 35. It solves the problem with latency and even improves the sound quality - we have already conducted a blind test in which 11 out of 12 subjects reported improved sound quality of compositions in wired mode. But, alas, this cable is needed. And so far, none of the "lightning to minijack adapter" released by Apple or third parties has worked with AirPods Max. By the way, for the price of this wiring, you can buy not the worst Honor Choice wireless headphones. These are certainly not Airpods, but in the budget class this is one of the best options.



The wire, of course, rules again. But, over the wire, the headphones will not work if the battery is low. Passive operation is not supported. Also, wired connections disable the built-in microphones used for calls.



What is actually profitable to sell to Apple?



In April of this year, Mark Gurman, a Bloomberg journalist, released an article in which he estimated that Apple made $ 24.5 billion in 2019 from accessories that include AirPods, Apple Watch and Beats headphones. That's almost as much as it made from Mac sales, and three billion more than iPad sales. Making and selling accessories allows Apple to make even more money for every iPhone user who uses their devices for longer, Mark said.



So Apple has created another device that needs an extra cable that could be included based on the cost of the headphones. Many will buy it. Also, headphone users will start buying replacement ear pads when the complete ones get worn out. Headphone cases - from Apple itself or other companies - also have a strong selling point.



Well, let's not forget about the Apple Music subscription. We can see from the statistics that Apple has a long-term plan, which they adhere to, to firmly establish itself in the niche for listening to music. And the sale of a device - even if it is so expensive - is not the end point, the potential buyer should regularly bring Apple on and on. But, the fans of the company are delighted, and have either bought them or are preparing for this purchase. Someone even takes a loan for it. Learn more about the headphones themselves in the video.



We will summarize briefly. Audio is a hugely lucrative business for Apple and generates a significant portion of the company's revenue. At the same time, Apple's strategy is the same ecosystem as in other areas. The single-product buyer must continue to pay Apple and its partners (for whom it certifies accessories) not just once, but systematically. High prices do not hinder sales of Apple technology.