Apple's New USB-C AirPods Case: A Smart Buy or Overpriced?

Let's dive right in

First story of the day. You can now buy standalone. Wait, is this the right story

Okay, thank God. Here it is. You can now buy standalone USB-C cases

for your AirPods Pro 2. But I don't think you're gonna want to

Because as you might expect, Apple didn't make it cheap. How much is a pair of AirPods Pro, gentlemen

$249 list. Well, that's the MSRP. But I've seen these things on sale regularly

Less than 200 often. Yeah, less than 200. $199. $199, maybe even a little bit less

But the AirPods USB-C case, which you could only previously get exclusively

with buying a brand new pair of the new AirPods, has just released

Apple wants $99 for that list. 99 smackers. Oh, I know. I think it's steep, honestly

I think it's pretty steep. We had a big discussion yesterday when this came up yesterday

A big slap discussion. I wanted the headline to be something like, only a sucker would buy a USB-C case for their AirPods

I mean, 99 bucks is a lot of money for a case

Yeah, but $250 is also a lot for headphones, too. And this is, like, when you buy AirPods Pro

you get three things, a left AirPod, a right AirPod, and a case

And this is less than a third of the price of that. You know? Yeah

And the case has a lot of technology in it. Like, when Apple did this for the original AirPods

when they revised the original AirPods with a wireless charging case, I mean, AirPods then cost, like, I think $160

and they sold the wireless charging case for $70. Like, $79 or $80, I think

And, you know, which was a greater proportion of the overall cost of the device

And the AirPods 2 case has much more technology in it than that original AirPods case does

It has the USB-C connector. Yeah, it has the speaker. It has, like, Find My support

so it has, like, additional radios in it. It has the little metal loop thing

You know, that adds a fraction of a penny. So. Don't forget about the metal loop thing

It was starting from $80. That bill of materials is getting out of control. Yeah, yeah, from $80 to $100

I heard TC spent weeks negotiating the price of the metal loop thing

Yeah, you know, I think. Forgetting that's even there. I don't think that most people are gonna go out

and rush out to buy this case, but you know who is gonna buy the case? People who have lost their case

People who need a new case because they broke it or something. So I would guess that's gonna be the audience

that goes out and buys a case for $99 instead of paying for a brand new set of AirPods

Like, if you already have AirPods Pro 2 and you just need the case. People who like USB-C more than they like money

Well, all right, well, there you go. Maybe a good stocking stuffer. If you know someone that really loves USB-C cases

or has a broken case, now you have an option. Let's move on

Oh, gee, here's a case. Here's a case for your AirPods. I've gotten worse things, Lewis

I've gotten worse things. My aunt used to give me banana hammock underwear

Would you rather get a AirPods USB-C case or banana hammock underwear

I guess there's probably a better trade-in value on the case. Actually, as an Italian travel fan

maybe you're into the banana hammocks. That's a pretty popular look over there, isn't it

We need to hire a PI to follow Lewis to Italy and just snap some telephoto images of him at the beach

That's all I'm saying. Yeah, I don't go to the beach. Because, no, you just do it around town

You're chained? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Nice, nice spin there. No, no

Oh, come on, Luigi. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. When in Rome

All right