5.4 grams, that's the weight of each of Apple's wireless headphones, AirPods, small, with a weak presence. AirPods have been called Apple's most successful product since the iPhone. If you look at it as a separate business, the scale of its revenue is also quite impressive, and it is another "business kingdom".

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According to statistics, AirPods alone generated $23.05 billion in revenue in 2020, second only to Tesla and Nifty, and more than Uber and Nvidia combined. If compared with other technology hardware companies, AirPods last year's revenue scale is roughly equivalent to Xiaomi's total revenue of about 60% of the whole company that year. Not only that, but AirPods also showed high growth at one point: between 2017 and 2019, their shipments grew at an average annual rate of more than 100%.

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, since its launch at the end of 2016, the shipments of AirPods reached 15 million units, 35 million units and 60 million units from 2017 to 2019, respectively. Technology industry consultancy Counterpoint Research expects AirPods shipments to account for 31% of the overall global TWS headphones (23.3 million) in 2020, or about 72 million units.

At Apple's fall event in September 2016, the company announced that the new iPhone 7 model eliminated the 3.5mm headphone port and introduced AirPods wireless headphones. This was the first time this product was unveiled. Apple rarely mentions the original purpose of developing AirPods. But some analysts believe that behind this is the company's concern about the main source of revenue - iPhone sales decline. This year's third-quarter earnings report showed that iPhone shipments fell 15 percent year-on-year in the quarter. In such a situation, the AirPods wireless headphones, which "do not affect the price of the iPhone but can boost revenue," came to market - not randomly given away, need to buy separately, priced at $159 (China pricing 1288 yuan).

In this way, the AirPods themselves have become part of the "meme culture" (similar to a pop stigma). During the 2019 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook also said outright that AirPods are a cultural phenomenon. Of course, the premise of AirPods is that many young people are calling out "really good" is the general trend of the development of wireless headphones. After all, compared to wired headphones, the former is more free to use, and can achieve a better interactive experience.

The key to AirPods becoming a representative product in the wireless headset field lies in Apple's breakthroughs in key technologies. For example, Apple solved the problem of wireless Bluetooth headset transmission was not smooth, the first to achieve a smooth feeling of no delay, no lag and true wireless stereo sound, and "open the charging box to identify the connection, put it in the ear can automatically play" design is the usual Apple-style "intimate ", which greatly improves the ease of use of wireless headphones.

According to Counterpoint Research statistics, the global TWS headset market in 2020, the overall shipments reached 2.33 billion, an increase of 78%. At the same time, the agency predicts that in 2021 the global TWS market will grow 33% year-on-year, shipments will reach a record high of 310 million.