Price evolution of AirPods in the United States

1. Relevance of the price of AirPods
2. Price evolution of AirPods
   1. Absolute price of AirPods per year
   2. Inflation adjusted price of AirPods per year
3. Conclusion
4. FAQs about AirPods's price in the the United States
5. Price evolution table and full chart

The AirPods were introduced in 2016 when Apple decided to remove the minijack port from their new iPhone. This move was controversial, as many saw it as a way for Apple to force customers into buying a new product which was previously included for free with iPhones and iPads.

Nevertheless, the AirPods include a bunch of technological advancements, and have been adopted by almost all Apple users, driving significant revenue growth in Apple’s “Wearables, Home and Accesories” segment.

Like with almost all Apple products, there are several pricing-levels for a single product to attract both entry-level clients as well as those willing to spend their money on higher-quality products. The prices on this article refer to the cheapest option of the latest AirPods generation released.

Price evolution of AirPods

The average price of AirPods between 2016 and 2023 was $164, with the lowest price being $159 in 2016 and the highest $179 in 2021 (at least within the timeframe we have data for).

Absolute price of AirPods per year

Our data source for this article was: Apple's Newsroom .

The absolute price of AirPods in the the United States has gone from $159 in 2016 to $169 in 2023. That's an absolute increase of $10, or 6.29% in a period of 7 years. (go to the next section for inflation-adjusted values).

This increment has not been linear though. During this period of 7 years the price of AirPods actually decreased year over year 1 times, in 2022.

The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of AirPods was in 2022, when the price dropped by $-10, or -5.59%. The biggest price increase was $20, or 12.58% in 2021.

With the price increasing most years, it comes as no surprise that the price of AirPods today is higher than what it used to be some years ago.

Inflation-adjusted price of AirPods per year

As accurate as the information above might be, it can also be somehow deceiving. This is because the value of money changes over time, usually decreasing. That means that $1 of today's money cannot buy as much as $1 in the past. This phenomenon is called inflation, and can make it complicated to compare historical pricing data. Luckily, we can adjust for it and calculate what a dollar value of the past would be equal to in today's money.

So let's not take a look at the evolution of the price of AirPods in the the United States, in that same 7 years period between 2016 and 2023, but adjusting prices to inflation (aka. in today's money).

When we adjust for inflation, we see that the price of AirPods also peaked in 2021, when it cost $213 (in today's money), and was at its lowest in 2023 when it sold for $178.

The biggest drop in adjusted price happened in 2022, when the inflation-adjusted price dropped by $-20.93 (-9.82%). Even when adjusting for inflation, the biggest price increase of AirPods was still in 2021. However, the $20 jump actually felt like $21.47 to the consumer due, to the effect of inflation.

The average price of AirPods during this period of time, adjusting for inflation, has been $198, and the most current price of $169 is 14.44% below that average. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Conclusion

The absolute price of AirPods has increased by $10 ($6.29%) since 2016. But that comes as no surprise, as prices always tend to increase over time due to inflation.

Now, as we've explained earlier, the absolute price of a product does not necessarily represent its affordability fairly. For that we have to look at its inflation adjusted price, or in other words, the price evolution in today's money.

When we look at the inflation-adjusted price of AirPods, we see that it has varied ± 8.9% over this period of time, and is currently 14.44% cheaper than the average over these years.

So not everything is bad news after all!

Even at $169 (per unit), AirPods is actually more afordable in 2023 than it was in 2016.

So if there had to be one single take away from this article it would be this: The average person has to make less of an economic effort to purchase AirPods today than in the past.

We can consider that the price of AirPods has remained maily stable over this period of time. It sure had some ups and downs, like in 2021 and 2022, but considering the magnitude and complexity of the global economy its price has mainly kept up with inflation.

FAQs about the price of AirPods in the the United States