This is huge. Previously if you were hard of hearing, a pair of hearing aids could cost upwards of $2,000. Now Apple just brought that price down to ~$250.
Even if you use them everyday and assume a shelf life of 1.5yrs (which is roughly mine and others' experience with AirPods), you would be replacing your Airpods for 12 years before the cost caught up with a single pair of hearing aids.
Even if you think Airpods are not on the same bar as regular hearing aids, this will certainly help depress market prices. Every manufacturer will probably start releasing sub $1000 hearing aids just to not get destroyed by Apple.
Even if you use them everyday and assume a shelf life of 1.5yrs (which is roughly mine and others' experience with AirPods), you would be replacing your Airpods for 12 years before the cost caught up with a single pair of hearing aids.
Even if you think Airpods are not on the same bar as regular hearing aids, this will certainly help depress market prices. Every manufacturer will probably start releasing sub $1000 hearing aids just to not get destroyed by Apple.