this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
236 points (98.0% liked)
Privacy
32159 readers
555 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
https://speakergy.com/headphones-sales-data-full-statistics-report/
Sold =/= "switched to". If these people listened to audio in the past, no doubt they would already be having a pair of wired headphones lying around somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for most of these sales was simply because their existing phone didn't have a headphone jack, so they were coerced into buying a wireless one.
Here are some more relevant and recent user polls:
https://www.androidpolice.com/weekend-poll-do-you-still-miss-the-headphone-jack-on-your-current-smartphone/ - from late last year, only 28% of the respondents were happy with their phones not having a jack.
https://www.makeuseof.com/wired-or-wireless-headphones-poll/ - This one from last month only had 43% preferring wireless over wired, so still far from majority.
I'm willing to bet that Fairphone users - who are more eco-conscious than the average consumer - are the kind of people who'd prefer to reuse existing stuff and hang on to working products. Fairphone's decision is a classic case of a company ignoring the needs of their own customers.
This reminds me of how OnePlus ran a poll on Twitter and over 80% users responded they wanted the headphone jack, but then they promptly got rid of the jack in their very next phone, and subsequently deleted their own poll out of shame.
How are your sources any more relevant? They have nothing to do with market share or usage. Random polls attached to articles specifically targeted at a certain demographic are not reflective of overall consumer trends.
The Fairphone is a very niche device though, and I'd argue it's buyers don't represent your average smartphone demographic either. Especially considering that it's sold only in limited places, doesn't have any advertising, and it's main exposure comes from articles on the kind of websites I linked.
If fairphone customers were really eco conscious they wouldn’t be fairphone customers in the first place because they’d be buying second hand phones btw.
Also lol at some online polls being used to argue against sales figures 😂
If you've got a better metric than online polls, I'm all ears.
Sales figures are pointless because wired headphone users rarely need to buy that often because a good pair can last for a long, long time. I bought my Beyerdynamic DT880 nearly two decades ago and it's still going strong. I did buy a pair of wireless Sony noise canceling headphones too (WH-1000XM5), but that was mainly for the noise cancelation feature I needed for flights and travel. My DT880 is still my main headphones. So if you'd look purely at sales figures, I'd be counted against a wireless user, but that's not really true, if you consider the time I spend using my DT880. Also, the Sony headphones I use can work over wire as well, and if I'm on a flight and want to listen to music, I prefer using the wired mode due to the lower battery usage. So even though it's technically counted as a wireless headphone, I rarely use it in wireless mode. Which is why sales figures are completely meaningless in this metric.
Also, if wireless users were really the majority, then the polls would reflect it, and yet, not a single poll shows that. I wonder why.
Sales figures are better than online polls. Online polls on enthusiast sites like android police very rarely mean anything in regards to the real world. If you listen to them everyone uses pixels and no one buys Samsung phones or iPhones.
Just go outside in public and count the people using AirPods alone vs wired headphones and you’ll see the reality is that people use wireless headphones more. Why do you think every phone manufacturer is making their own wireless headphones and earbuds now?
Which is why I've also listed a poll from makeuseof.com, which isn't an enthusiast site. Also, as I mentioned, the Fairphone is a enthusiast phone in itself - just ask any normal person if they've heard of it - your answer would be a resounding "no".
As I said before, one could be a wireless user as well as a wired user, like I am technically, but that doesn't mean I don't use a headphone jack at all.
That's obviously to make more money. By removing the jack and selling wireless headphones, they're basically coaxing users into buying wireless headphones, and once people buy these wireless headphones, they enter into a perpetual upgrade cycle just like how they upgrade their smartphones, thus creating a new steady stream of income.
That pill has less than 4000 responses, and is an online poll that anyone can manipulate. It’s worth less than the hosting costs it’s using.
Most people that use wireless headphones on their phones won’t also use wired headphones on their phone. There’s just no point, and it’s far less convenient.
Your point about making more money is right and wrong. It’s right because they make more money because people want wireless headphones, but the fact that they’re not proprietary means you don’t have to buy your phone manufacturers headphones. I for example don’t use AirPods with my iPhone, I use Sony ones, so apple didn’t make more money from me on headphones. Companies are making more and more wireless headphones because that’s what the market wants.
There’s also the fact that every 3.5mm enthusiast overlooks - a simple $5 adapter on your headphone cable means you can use your wired headphones.