Analyst predicts 85 million AirPods will be sold in 2020

While there were plenty of jokes made at Apple’s expense after the initial unveiling of the AirPods, the wireless ear buds have gone on to become one of the most popular on the market. That success is due to grow quite substantially in 2020 too, with industry analysts expecting a lot of sales in the months ahead.

Bernstein analyst, Toni Sacconaghi, released a new investor note recently, estimating that Apple has made $6 billion from selling AirPods this year. As noted by 9to5Mac, that number could double in 2020, with Sacconaghi currently anticipating around 85 million AirPod sales, which would generate around $15 billion in revenue.

Analysts from Wedbush and Asymco are also delivering positive outlooks on AirPods, with estimations of $4 billion quarterly revenues. It is also thought that Apple sold around three million AirPods over Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday.

While things are looking up for 2020 growth, things may fall off relatively swiftly in the years following. According to the analyst, AirPods revenue should see a reduction to single digit growth rates by 2021 or 2022 due to saturation of the iPhone user base.

Essentially, so many people are buying AirPods already that there might not be many people left to sell to in a couple of years time, although Apple could combat this with significant product revisions and upgrades. We are already starting to see the beginning of that, with the AirPod Pro hitting shelves just in time for this holiday season.

KitGuru Says: The AirPods had an uphill battle to climb after the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack in the iPhone 7. However, it is clear that Apple’s strategy of pushing iPhone users over to its wireless headphone option has paid off handsomely. Have any of you used a pair of AirPods since launch? What do you think of them? 

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