Impressive figures no doubt, but in my opinion flawed to consider Airpods as a standalone business and compare to other businesses. It's so successful specifically because Apple built bespoke chips, software, and integration across their ecosystem for the Airpods. This is something a brand new company building just the Airpods product would never be able to accomplish.
I am on my third "generation" (Airpods, AP wireless, Airpods Pro) of Airpods and have never been otherwise in the Apple ecosystem. I use Android. I think there are probably some advantages like quick pairing and being able to see battery level quickly, but so far haven't specifically needed this information. Really love the Airpods, previous had several pairs of in ear earbuds like the Google Pixel Buds, Beats, and over ear stuff like the Bose QC35. The Airpods were nearly perfect, even without an iPhone, and the Airpods Pro have made me totally replace even my Bose over the ears.
I think it's an amazing product even without the integration and software and integration.
Yup, good point. It's not possible to extract AirPods from Apple and still have them be as successful. But it's illuminating to isolate the business against a backdrop of other top tech companies. It's kind of like Apple spawned Silicon Valley's hottest new tech company in 2016.
