GQ:
It’s no great secret that how one carried one’s portable music payer back then – as one does still to this day – was to plug in, press play and then stuff your player (and 1,000 songs) into your pocket, just as the advert instructed. This meant, of course, that no matter how different the iPod looked, no matter how new the interface, no one would notice or see it as it would be buried in a coat pocket along with your monthly rail cards, lighters and lint. What Apple needed was a way of signalling to everyone else in the train carriage, bus or on the sidewalk, that it was an iPod in the customer’s pocket, rather than some other music player.
Yet, as is so often with products, it was the marketing – the adverts – that would really catapult the iPod into the stratosphere and feed the customers’ imagination and desire for The New. The “silhouette campaign” ads, which I’m sure many of you remember more than the early hardware, focused on the white earbuds that came with each iPod – a design feature that Ive has since stated was pure serendipity. (The white earbuds were white, he commented, because the iPod itself was white; it was consistency, more than anything else.)
I’ve always hated Apple’s earbuds – they never fit properly for me and were uncomfortable even after short periods of time – but I love how they were/are signifiers of “certain people”.
I’ve always hated them too. I think they sound pretty darn good, but even the slightest movement causes them to slip out of alignment in my ears. I have a pair of Sennheisers I swear by now.
The white was and is definitely iconic, however. To be honest I’ve grown to really despise seeing the AirPods sticking out of peoples ears. I don’t know why they bother me so much more than the wired ones.
I never liked the wired earbuds because of the fit and always used Klipsch or Etymotic (my favorite).
The AirPods are a different story. They have never fallen out and the combination of convenience and sound quality mean that they are what I now use.
I have set of wireless B&O over-the-ear headphones but I only use them when I’m in a noisy environment.
I love my AirPods and use them all the time for podcasts, music, and video conferencing. The only problem that I have with them is that the batteries don’t last as long now. Basically normal battery fade.
I’m hoping for new models this year to replace them.
Like the EarPods, Apple’s AirPods fit me acceptably, but they work better if I can get foam rubber covers on them. Trouble is, even with thin foam, that makes it difficult to store ’em in the charging case.