With Apple releasing the AirPods Max (that come with a truly max price tag of $549) we thought we'd wheel out this chart again — as pundits already begin to ask who on earth will spend that much on a pair of headphones.
Apple doesn't explicitly disclose AirPod revenues, but even the conservative $7.3bn estimate reported by Wired, would make AirPods roughly the same size as Spotify, the leader in global music streaming, which did $7.6bn of revenue in 2019.
For AirPods, the rocky start as an internet joke that made fun of rich people turned into a feature – as the market began to see them as a status symbol. Whether the same will happen with AirPods Max is yet to be seen, but if any company is capable of convincing millions of people to spend $550 on headphones... it's Apple.
