Comment by NoLinkToMe
7 hours ago
This hyperbole is not really necessary on hackernews. Apple alone makes 20 billion on a single product: airpods.
This article notes 2025 saw a 3% increase of 15m. That means total sales are 0.5b, or 2.5% of Apple's airpods product.
In other words: tiny market with a growth in line with inflation after years of decline? Let's call that 'exploding sales' and farm some clicks.
Yes perhaps there is some newfound interest, but since bluetooth headsets took off they keep getting cheaper to buy, easier to pair and connect, longer lasting batteries, easier to find, smaller to pocket, more varied, more comfortable to wear, and with better noise-cancelling. Plus every year fewer devices carry the headphone jack.
It's on the way out, though it'll be a slow death. I have a pair of wired headphones, I prefer them on corporate laptops for meetings because corporate laptops suck with pairing. But that's about it.
Wired and wireless will always co-exist. Your casual consumer prefers wireless. Professional audio equipment for mixing and critical listening will never favor wireless over wired. For pros, $20-50 wired IEMs beat $250 Airpods every time.
The same applies to pro gamers. Latency and empty batteries are a big no-no.
> It's on the way out, though it'll be a slow death
At the very most, it's on its way out in the same way normal computers are on their way out for non-IT professionals. There are situations where wired is a must, not a preference (studios being the most obvious).
Aside from that, wired offers the highest sound quality possible, plug-and-play, and all at a lower price. Wireless headphones don't appear to even be trying to catch up.
> This hyperbole is not really necessary on hackernews
I've noticed that hyperbole is increasingly getting frontpaged as of these past 6-10 months.
When I'm watching movies or playing games, I find the lag jarring so plug in my wired ones every time.
Wired were deliberately killed by Apple in order for them to make that $20 billion. We should not celebrate billionaires making the world worse so they can make more money.