Not only are AirPods very profitable, but with a non-user-serviceable battery, they are also disposable. This way users can enjoy buying new $200 AirPods every couple years and Apple gets the recurring revenue to pour to climate initiatives like combating the rise of e-waste.
So, my other listening equipment is a pait of senn HD280 that I have had since 2006.
They're kind of a Ship of Theseus, insofar as I have replaced every element but the drivers multiple times. I'm fairly handy with a soldering iron, and have been repairing them myself with parts for the manufacturer.
I think that this about the best case for repairs.
One replacement of the cord generates more plastic waste than the entirety of the airpods I use.
I've also been going through wired headphones at a rate of about 1 per year, as they are mechanically fragile. However, I don't think that this year I will be replacing the airpods I have been using for the last year... granted the battery will eventually fail. But to me, the lifetime on the airpods is so-far exceeding that of the wired earphones.
So am I wrong in thinking that between having replaceable components that are wasteful in themselves and the increased lifespan of the device, I'm just paying a rather large premium to -reduce- e-waste?
People keep mentioning this point and I'm a little confused. In 2020 a non-user-replaceable battery seems to be the standard situation for all my electronics, not just AirPods. I'm not saying it's a good thing I just don't get why this criticism tends to mostly come up around AirPods.
With wired headphones, people can keep them for years, decades even. Many of the popular sets of 'serious' headphones have been around for over a decade.
So it goes hand in hand with removing the headphone jack. Remove the ability to not require a battery, and then don't allow people to replace the battery.
> With wired headphones, people can keep them for years, decades even.
My wired headphones all broke after about ~2 years (100-150€ models from Sennheiser and Teufel, plus the ones shipped with phones). In my Beats Studio 3, the hinges broke before the battery even degraded. As an extreme example, my 1st-gen iPad still lasts hours, but hasn't seen a software update in many years.
Planned obsolescence ticks me off, but I don't feel it has gotten any worse with non-replaceable batteries. Everything you buy breaks after 2 years, that's just how the incentives work for companies.
Conversely I have had multiple pairs of Sennheiser and Audiotechnicas for over 5 years now, all with wires, and they are still work phenomenally. I have used them as daily drivers (I keep the Audiotechnicas at work, and my Senn HDs are for the commute, flights, hanging out at home, etc) and they still produce amazing sound quality and I only had to replace a cable once and buy one set of ear-cups (I like over ears not in-ears).
I find Sennheiser and Audiotechnica build quality products that last if you buy their higher end stuff. In the case of AT, the M50x's aren't even that expensive and they are as good as the day I bought them.
I can vouch for AKG myself. I've been using a pair of K530 LTD headphones daily for 11,5 years now. Sound never changed. The velvet pads and the leather band are still intact. Only the letters of the logo have come off. I reckon they aren't even of the supposedly better built made-in-Austria series.
Sennheiser has a cable and earpad replacement program, last I checked (which was admittedly years ago). They aren't the type of company to rely on planned obsolescence in order to make more sales.
My Teufel headphones also prided themselves on having a replaceable cable, but that doesn't help if the internal wiring breaks and one half of the headphone goes silent.
I think that was also what happened to the Sennheiser ones, but it's too long ago to say for sure. Makes me happy to see that so many of you are luckier than me :) - Sennheiser is just around the corner from where I live so I want them to be the good guys.
>With wired headphones, people can keep them for years, decades even.
With quality over-ear headphones with easy to replace parts ? Sure.
With in-ear earphones? Depends on the user. Many people I know tend to break/fray the cable or lose them atleast once a year. Most in-ear earphones were used as a semi-disposable item.
> With wired headphones, people can keep them for years, decades even.
If you buy some top end headphones with replaceable cables and replaceable ear covers you can get 10+ years out of them. The majority of pairs I've owned haven't lasted near that long. About 2 years is pretty typical before I fatally snag a cable, drop them in water, run them over, or lose them. Even barring some kind of life ending issue, cables and ear covers don't usually last much more than 2-3 years for me, even on pricier headphones. I do have a pair of AKG headphones which have lasted me about 5 years now after replacing the ear covers (which is itself a form of e-waste), but since they are so bulky I wear them a small fraction of the time I wear my AirPods so it's difficult to compare.
I have a $25 (normally $50) pair of headphones that have a replaceable cable and aluminum housings, which have been through multiple laundry cycles and a lot of abuse that look and sound just as good as the day I got them. I'd honestly be more concerned about losing or stepping on a TWS earbud given the plastic construction and lack of attachments.
Pleather and foam earpads (which I'm assuming is what you mean by ear covers) aren't really e-waste in the same way that batteries and circuit boards are, the pleather can be recycled as well as the foam, and higher end pads are animal skin anyway.
Yes the product with the magical qualities of being cheap, serviceable, great quality, and durable. Super common in consumer electronics. I can understand why you don't mention brand name because you'd definitely want to keep such an item under wraps before it gets sold out then see price hikes as tens of millions of people who desire exactly such a thing flock to it.
Even IF such a magical product exists, I would still buy the AirPods because not having cables is exactly the reason I wanted them.
They are the Tin Audio T2, they were sold out when they launched and are pretty universally lauded in audiophile circles, especially after they fixed initial issues with the connectors.
Why would I lie about a product I own on some internet forum? Furthermore why do feel so attacked by the fact you can find good cheap tech if you do any amount of research? I'm glad you're happy with your AirPods, but $250 is a lot of money for a lot of people who would rather just take better care of their headphones.
I'm not even sure why you think these products are comparable. The Tin Audio headphones can't even make phone calls and don't even have an inline remote. They are basically dumb drivers. If that's what you are looking for then rad, you have the right thing, but that's not what Airpods are.
The big reason people like the AirPods is because they don't have cables which is a huge convenience. They also let you make phone calls, dictate text messages, and control your phone (and anything controllable by your phone via voice interaction) by voice. If none of this appeals to you and you don't mind the cables, fabulous, but don't pretend the two products are comparable.
my understanding was they are non-replaceable batteries, period. Apple doesn't replace the batteries on AirPods, just recycles the AirPod and provides a new one.
you mean ship it off to live in a landfill in africa/india. even their much vaunted green initiatives keep handing off trash til they reach a company that does this
Most android phones only receive 1 or 2 years of updates since release, not when you buy the phone. If you get it 2 years after it was originally released, chances are you have at most 1 year of security updates and little chance of getting a newer version of Android. https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18019356/android-securit...
The only exceptions to this I know of is the Pixel lineup (Pixel 1 got Android 10) and "Android One" phones https://www.android.com/one/, although this only guarantees 2 years of OS upgrades and 3 years of security updates.
> Monthly security updates to be supported for at least 3 years after initial phone release
Nothing is going to change on that front until government mandates minimum lifetime for equipment.
In Norway these devices are covered for up to 5 years after date of purchase. This follows the product, so unlike some warranties it also covers second hand purchases as well.
Sooner or later we'll get laws saying that each electronic device MUST have a replaceable battery.
In most cases, whether intentional or not, only the battery needs to be changed, but because of the way products are designed now, you have to throw the other 80% of the product in the trash.
When world's governments become a little more environmentally-conscious, they'll see this solution as a no-brainer, just like the EU saw a single charging standard necessary to combat electronics waste.
It's a shame to see "green Apple" spearhead the exact opposite of this movement with products that become environmental waste once their battery drops below 50% or so their original capacity.
I don't want one of the few gadgets I buy every four years legislated into an impossible form factor by environmental concerns. It seems like the most unfair implementation compared to, say, raising the price of things to price in externalities.
For example, why is it one of my most cherished possessions, a single pair of bluetooth headphones, paying a penalty while my roommate gets 3-5 Amazon shipments a day to our house for free and eats cheap meat with every meal if we actually care about the environmental impact of things? We need to be more creative than crafting legislation for individual scapegoat products and consumer-blaming.
I can't see how it would be possible to build something in the AirPods form factor with replaceable batteries. So any such device would have to be substantially larger (possibly to the point where it would no longer be comfortable to wear, or to carry the charging case in a pocket).
And from my experience, wired headphones tend to break after a couple of years as well, for different reasons.
