The new Apple AirPods Max
I love Apple products and own many of them. But it doesn’t mean I go easy on the company when I cover Apple.
Today, as every Apple fan (and hater) knows, Apple released the long-rumored AirPods Max, over-ear headphones with a sexy, sleek minimalist sophistication and a suite of great features.
I’ll be the first to admit: I want them. The Digital Crown looks interesting and I’m excited about having a better way to control my headphones, as the buttons on my Bose headphones are hard to find and press, and I find the virtual buttons on the AirPods Pro are also tough to use. The mesh canopy on the headband is ingenious, reminiscent of a premium Herman Miller Aeron chair. Memory foam on replaceable ear cushions that magnetically seat into the headphone cups is a why-didn’t-they-think-of-that-before feature, and seamless switching between devices is great, although I don’t find switching to be entirely seamless for my AirPods Pro right now. Spatial audio is great — really good in AirPods already — transparency mode makes a ton of sense, and I’m sure the sound quality will be very good, if not great.
But ... $549?
During a pandemic in which tens of millions are still out of work?
Apple AirPods Max
First off, that’s beyond pricey. My Bose noise-canceling headphones are several years old but cost me about $350. Sony models can be had for similar or less. Master & Dynamic are in the $500 range, and that’s a premium price. Sennheisers top out around the same price point. Bang & Olufsen push past the $1,000 range ... but that’s Bang & Olufsen, where speakers that look like alien spaceships run up to the $100,000 range.
(Seriously.)
Back to reality and the AirPods Max: I love the look, and I like the compatibility that they’ll have with my MacBook Pro, iPhone, and Apple Watch. But at $549 — almost $800 in Canada — they don’t compare favorably with a lot of other Apple products.
- iPad Air: just $50 more
- iPad: more than $200 less
- MacBook Air: $450 more
- iPhone 12: just $150 more
Apple doesn’t price its products without a lot of thought, which doesn’t mean they don’t make pricing mistakes (original HomePod, anyone?) I have no doubt the company sincerely believes there’s $549 of value in the AirPods Max. But I’m also pretty sure there’s a significant amount of profit in there too.
Apple is premium: no doubt about it.
But Apple is also the people’s premium.
Apple is your chance to own the same phone as a billionaire or the same watch as a titan of the tech industry and get exactly the same level of quality and power and speed. I expect to pay more for Apple, because I expect to get a better product that lasts longer and is better supported. But I also expect value commensurate with the price.
$549 during a pandemic feels too high, however. It feels predatory. It has people comparing the AirPods Max to used car pricing. Or, as CNBC technology editor Steve Kovach tweeted: "Sorry, I can't hear you. My AirPods Max automatically mute poor people."
They may be worth it, and pundits like TechCrunch editor Matthew Panzarino thinks they likely will be:
That remains to be seen.
What we can say right now is that in extremely tough economic circumstances where many of us keyboard commandoes can work wherever we choose but many others who are not location independent cannot, Apple risks losing its popular appeal by pricing the Max headphones so high.
Tech analyst Brian Jackson calls it “shameless luxury tier pricing.”
Look, ultra-premium brands will always be among us. Even during a pandemic.
The question for Apple executives is whether they want to be seen as great technology that most can afford, or pricey, out of reach (and maybe out of touch) tech toys for the ostentatiously wealthy. There is already that perception among many who are not Apple customers, and AirPods Max will not do anything to change that.
Quite the contrary.
