Apple thirsts for your earholes
It wants you wearing AirPods, all the time
Another year, another iPhone event, and another opportunity to ponder what it all means. Specifically… why does Apple really, really want to get inside our earholes?
Let’s think about this from a different angle.
We’re inching ever closer to the next technological evolution. The trend underpinning most consumer tech is devices becoming increasingly intertwined with people. We went from the home computer, to the laptop, then to the smartphone — and this mesh of hardware and flesh will reach a peak with the rise ambient technology.
So what actually is ambient technology? This is when tech is integrated seamlessly into everything around us, where we barely realise it’s even there.
We may constantly be on our phones, but they’re a clearly separate entity from us. Despite how it may feel, most of the time we’re not actually using our handsets. More often than not they’re in our pockets.
This won’t be the case for, say, a pair of smartglasses. We’ll wear them constantly, meaning there will be a layer between us and the world. Tech companies will have access to unbelievable amounts of data and can tilt reality to their favour. It’s the holy grail.
All the big boys are trying it, but it’s Apple that’s getting interestingly close — although not in the way you’d initially think. Rather than edging towards ambient technology with vision and smartglasses, they’re doing it with sound.
They’re doing it, surprisingly, with AirPods.
It always feels odd when an update is both Very Good For Society, yet Quite Bad Too. This is the situation Apple manouevered itself into with the hearing protection features it incorporated into the AirPods Pro 2.
Here, a video for your pleasure:
On first watch… this is good, right? Like, really good. The AirPods Pro 2 are now clinical-grade hearing aids. They also have a feature called Hearing Protection, that turn the headphones into futuristic earplugs that mitigate outside noise. That’s genuinely amazing.
But there’s more. Apple launched the entry-level AirPods 4 at the event too. This model includes previously Pro-only features, such as transparency mode, noise cancelling, and conversational awareness, a setting that automatically lowers the volume when you speak with someone.
Again, this has to be good, right? All these features? They’re making wearing AirPods pretty damn convenient.
Yet… yet yet yet… I can’t help but notice one unifying thread: Apple really wants you to keep wearing AirPods. Whether it’s talking to people, protecting your hearing, helping you pick out sounds, or even to insulate you, it’s doing it all can to make sure they stay in your ears.
It’s odd.
These features genuinely help users, but they also encourage people to never take them off, which begs a question: why? What is Apple achieving from us always wearing AirPods?
As much as I wish it was one simple thing, there are a gamut of possible reasons.
There’s the marketing angle: the more people are seen with AirPods in, the higher their cultural cache becomes. The unit-shifting angle: if people wear their AirPods more, the batteries will die quicker, and the public will buy them more regularly. The access and data angle: Apple can reach us easier with notifications and hoover up more data if we’re always wearing earbuds.
And what about the preparation angle? The more we’re used to constantly wearing earbuds, the easier it’ll to convince us to wear smartglasses too.
Apple’s motivations are up for debate, but it’s hard not to admire such a strategy. No other company has attempted to shift earbuds from listening devices to lifestyle enhancement hardware.
The company is remodelling a long-existing hardware segment right in front of our eyes. Or ears, I guess. It’s doing so brilliantly, in a way that benefits both it and the public. Of course though, if the balance between the two shifts, there’s only one way it’ll fall: in Apple’s favour.
While everything happening with AirPods so far seems benign, it’s only a few steps until they’re listening to every conversation we’re having and selling that data to the highest bidder.
Until then? They’re welcome in my earholes. Even though I don’t feel too great about it.
I can't think of any reason a commercial entity with a profit objective would not have a drive to "win". It's a bit naive to expect a company to be altruistic in it's product development. Of course Apple has to have a profit/image objective. Hearing loss with ageing isolates and decreases quality of life more than a young person can imagine. I thought the latest Apple event was pretty meh but I am so very stoked that it has made hearing improvement more accessible as it's product costs far less than contemporary hearing aids and would not have as much social stigma associated with it. The view of this article is understandable from a young person's viewpoint. Maybe revisit your thoughts in 30 years time? Your perspective might change... (I'm a boomer, in case you hadn't guessed.)