Last week Amazon Prime Day(s) featured a surprisingly aggressive sale on AirPods Pro 2, Apple’s current top-of-the-line earbuds. The US$100 discount from $249 to $149 was matched at Best Buy and Walmart, though not through Apple’s own retail channels.
Some speculate Amazon (and therefore Apple) wants to move AirPods inventory before introducing a new model, according to a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. CIRP says it’s hard to imagine that two companies as skilled at managing their supply chains could possibly need to do that.
“We think both companies just want to sell a lot of AirPods and had the margin capacity to sell them at prices that could drive extraordinary volume,” the report says. “As iPhone owners hold on to their phones longer before upgrading, AirPods are a meaningful product category where Apple enjoys significant penetration into their customer base and may see room for additional growth. More than 40% of iPhone owners report that they have Bluetooth earbuds, and about 60% of them report owning AirPods.”
