What is in the box? Ask Airpods..

what makes the new trend of Bluetooth earbuds/pods/earphones click..

What exactly changed in the last 15 years that made Airpods and the wider market of Bluetooth based earphones possible? Was it the tech? I still remember people using Bluetooth headsets in early 2000s with almost the same functionalities.

Two things have changed from the above picture - they are used in both ears now and secondly and more importantly they have a case to be put in.

I think this case is the innovation here, a simple, obvious innovation once you see it but incredibly hard to think or imagine the impact of. This case solved two critical problems that inflicted the first generation headsets 

• Battery life

• Portability/ability to carry them in pocket 

It is harder to argue which one was more important. 

I feel these were the changes that made this product line possible and not improvements in battery and Bluetooth technologies as these improvements were just incremental in nature.

Of course Apple’s marketing and niche created a need in customers which might have been difficult for any other company (after all they sell hardware at software margin) and they have been handsomely rewarded for their innovation and marketing. Airpods alone did more than $12 bn in revenue for Apple in 2019.