Apple Is Doing Something Different With AirPods Pro And It’s Working

Once a decade or so, a product emerges that claims to be revolutionary, touted with superlatives by its manufacturer, receiving universal plaudits, and exceeding expectations. Apple is often the source of this product. Since the days of the first Mac, through the iPod to the iPhone, Apple has hyped big and delivered as promised. But now it appears there’s been a subtle shift in the Apple hype machine under Tim Cook. Sure, the company continues to tout virtually all of its products as revolutionary—each new iteration of the iPhone is trumpeted as a “must have” because of a feature you had no idea you wanted in the first place.

But for the first time in recent memory, Apple has underpromoted a product that I find truly revolutionary: AirPods Pro. They seemed to have come out of nowhere, and, having had a chance to demo them, I think they are among the most innovative tech products I have experienced since the iPhone. They won’t make you rich, or help you live longer, but the execution of their creative and technical brief is so exacting and complete that they are a revolutionary product. I’m not alone. They are among the hottest selling items this holiday season.

When my son Matt visits from L.A., we like to get out of the house and geek out on the latest tech products at the Apple Store, Best Buy, or Costco. Some dads and sons play golf. We like to check out the tech. On his latest trip, we found ourselves at the Seattle University Village Apple Store looking at everything—the new iPads, the 16” MacBook Pros, the iPhone 11s. Everything was sleek and functional, as usual. The store was busy, though it felt a little Brave New World-ish as an instructor gave a GarageBand tutorial to an audience of empty chairs.

After a half-hour marveling at the relatively familiar devices and marveling even more at their price tags, a friendly and freakishly tall sales associate asked if we have tried the new AirPods Pro. “Nope,” we answered. To be honest, we really hadn’t even considered it. He asked if we would like to, and we nodded. Why not? The alternative was joining my wife and daughters at Anthropologie. We had time.

The demo station was unobtrusive, tucked away at the front of the store, easy to miss as you passed by. There was one twentysomething associate swapping out pods and their tips for two guys in front of us. To be honest, neither my son nor I had considered demoing the product and we wondered whether we should hang around for the few minutes that it would take to do so. But the session in front of us concluded and we were smilingly motioned forward. Before we could reconsider the option, a new case was unwrapped, the sleek white devices were handed to us, and we had them in our ears. Dave, the Apple associate, started going through a series of maneuvers with an iPad mini that guided us within five minutes from blissfully ignorant to skeptical to evangelizing. Music was added and removed. Levels were raised and lowered. Ambient noise was turned on and off. Dave maneuvered his iPad like an orchestra conductor.

With noise cancellation invoked, the scene felt like those times when your friends pretended to be talking by moving their mouths with nothing coming out. I really couldn’t hear anything. I have noise-cancelling headphones at work that I use for my writing, with industrial cups like they use on construction sites. They cover my ears and keep out loud noises, but the AirPods Pro were far superior. I could hear almost nothing. When music was added, I could hear the music, and nothing else. My son and I bopped along, then spoke to each other, but laughed as we seemed to be miming.

This whirlwind of scenarios took about five minutes and by the end, both Matt and I agreed that we couldn’t remember a product demo that so thoroughly convinced us of something we didn’t even know we needed. Matt has had the first iteration of Apple Airpods for two years. He loves them. Now my wife and daughter have pairs, too. Though he thought this demo was mind-blowing, Matt couldn’t really muster up the need for Airpods Pro in his current life, especially at the $249 sticker price.

As a longtime fan of Apple products, I was sold. Moreover, I found the low-key marketing of a truly innovative product a subtle shift for the consistently highest-rated consumer brand. The stories of fanboys camping out overnight to be the first to buy the new iPhone don’t feel right in the current cultural climate. Apple’s marketing folks seem to intuit that fact.

In addition, AirPods Pro require an actual demo to truly understand how amazing they are. Hearing, or, to be more accurate, not hearing, is believing. That such a small combination of molded plastic, electronics, and metal could so drastically alter your environment is counterintuitively fantastic. With the fast hands and multitasking legerdemain of Dave, we went from neophytes to evangelists almost instantly.

So who are AirPods Pro designed for? I’m sure Apple would say “everyone,” but that doesn’t seem completely accurate. Neither my son nor I considered ourselves the target market. Rather, the ideal customer might be someone who wants to listen to music and nothing else (a high school or college student), have a completely blocked out environment (a businessperson sitting next to a baby on a plane), or a commuter (on a train or bus) trying to read and not connect with their neighbors. For everyone else, regular AirPods seem to be fine.

Great marketing makes you think about buying something you hadn’t really considered at first. We left the AirPods Pro demo amazed by the technology, impressed by the professional and efficient demo, and surprised by the lack of hype. In an era of bluster and bombast, AirPods Pro just seem to work as promised. Well worth a few minutes away from Anthropologie with your son.