Maybe. But for now it's fascinating how $200/month has kind of become a normal tier.

It's similar to how AirPods normalised all of us having $300+ headphones. All of us would have scoffed at the idea a decade ago.

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p1esk 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Many people here spent a lot more than $300 on headphones long before AirPods appeared.

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mc3301 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Those were hobbyists, audiophiles, professionals, artists (recording, performing, etc.).

They are talking about a much larger group of people.

	▲	klausa an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I think OP meant noise-cancelling headphones, which were fairly ubiquitous in tech circles in open offices; before Apple launched AirPods.

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holistio 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I had a really nice Sennheiser before that, too. But now you hop on the subway and everybody sports one.

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sofixa 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The Sony WH-1000XM series and the Bose QC35 were the standard quality headphones years before AirPods were a thing, and both retailed at $300+.

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holistio an hour ago | parent [-]

Of course, premium headphones existed before. I have a WH-1000XM4 sitting right next to me.

But your aunt Josie didn't have one. Now Apple is selling 80 million units / year and the ~$300 price tag has become normal. Before that, most people had headphones that were 10 times cheaper.

	▲	Hamuko 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		$300 isn’t what AirPods cost though. You can get a pair of AirPods 4 for $129 on Apple.com, and I presume that is still the most popular model.