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We may not have heard much about Apple's AirPods at WWDC, but football fans watching the 2018 World Cup will not have missed the number of filmed players who play them. wear on arrival at the stadium.
Shape of you
Thirty-two national teams compete to win the coveted FIFA Trophy and hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.
To reach these people, Apple has announced the addition of Siri support for football in Brazil, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and in Israel as a prelude to the match. Football fans in around 36 countries can now ask Siri for scores, schedules, standings and team listings for Senegal or others – some may even use AirPods to do it.
And a lot of footballers are filmed with their AirPods in place. Take a look at this picture Japan's Keisuke Honda arriving at the stadium, for example.
The blow of sending AirPod
There are 736 players participating in the tournament this year. Apple does not sponsor the cup and does not seem to advertise around the championship, beyond its recent "How to shoot Football "iPhone marketing outlet.
FIFA has strict rules regarding the use of branded headphones in controlled areas during its matches, so it is reasonable to assume that all images showing people using AirPods around the game reflect a choice free staff.
If that's true, then we're seeing more and more people accustomed to using AirPods – and this suggests that the earlier prejudices around "wearing a toothbrush in the ears" are starting to decline .
[Also read: The essential AirPod user guide for iPhones, Macs and Android]
The beautiful game
We have already been there before, when Apple's iconic white headphones have become the very definition of digital music in the era of the iPod.
As then, the initial resistance turns into acceptance – even the New York style title, The cup, recognize this now.
Apple's next-generation smart wearables achieved a 98% satisfaction rate last year and a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 75 reflects the integrated pester power of Apple toys. The sight of football players wearing the devices around the world's largest football event is one manifestation.
For the record, I certainly see more and more people wearing these devices – and those to whom I speak seem universally excited about them. They like the convenience of using Siri to send and receive messages and calls, or listen to music. Security-conscious commuters use simple buttons to navigate in new places with Maps, while keeping the second AirPod in their pocket. When iOS 12 comes out, we'll see how many ways to use these devices grow because Siri shortcuts make the more complex tasks available to users in conjunction with an iPhone.
No news, it's news
Apple has retained its AirPod sales data.
Why?
I think it's because far from being an accessory, the devices represent a much broader strategic vision of a company that knows that it must already be moving towards a time when the iPhones do not matter anymore.
This path will be partly defined by wearables, ambient computing devices and its push towards services. The fact that Apple does not share any sales data around the products speaks volumes.
Speaking in May, company CEO Tim Cook called them "incredibly popular" and "love at first sight". Barclays analysts have already predicted 30 million sales in 2018, while the former KGI Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, had predicted the same target early in the year.
"We hope that AirPods will remain one of the most popular Apple accessories in 2018, with shipments likely to increase by 100% year-over-year to 26-28 million units," he said. he added. I said.
We do not know if it will go more or less well.
However, it seems possible that the daily images of world-class football / football players who voluntarily wear the devices as they enter the stadium will do much to normalize both the appearance and enhance the power of suction of these devices.
Perhaps this will be seen in the future as a second starting point for Apple devices, which have moved from the market of the first advanced technology users to the consumer market, just 12 months after Kristen Stewart was seen in public.
Meanwhile, in the background, Apple continues to develop its future plans for these things.
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