Apple exec says AirPods spread 'almost like wildfire'

The AirPods performed better than Apple thought they would and "it was almost like wildfire how quickly it spread," Wired reported on Saturday, quoting Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of product marketing.

One of Apple's controversial decisions was to remove the headphone jack from its iPhone lineup, starting with the 2016 launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, though it also moved Apple toward wireless Bluetooth headphones.

Joswiak said:

We had done work with Stanford to 3D-scan hundreds of different ears and ear styles and shapes in order to make a design that would work as a one-size solution across a broad set of the population.

With AirPods Pro, we took that research further – studied more ears, more ear types. And that enabled us to develop a design that, along with the three different tip sizes, works across an overwhelming percentage of the worldwide population.

Apple recently released its financial results for the second quarter of 2020, and Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that it has set a quarterly record for wearable devices.

In the first fiscal quarter of 2020, Cook also announced a new all-time revenue record for Apple's wearable device category.

It's worth noting that Apple's wearable device business has reached the size of a Fortune 150 company.

Apple's first-generation AirPods were released in 2016 along with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, followed by Apple's second-generation AirPods in March 2019 and the AirPods Pro in late October.