. . . for a Throwback Thursday blast from the past.

In Dec 2016, Apple launched AirPods, its fastest-growing business ever.

In 2017, 16 million AirPods were sold. 

It hit 60 million in 2019 and crossed 100 million in 2020.

Costing around $200 per pair, that’s $20 billion in revenue in just 4 years!

Fact: People spend half a billion dollars annually just replacing their AirPods. 

The MTA has found hundreds of lost AirPods in the New York subway!

With a 35% margin, the AirPods unit alone is worth a staggering $175 billion. 

If AirPods was a stand-alone company, it would be the 30th most valuable U.S. firm, beating other tech brands like Adobe, Spotify, AMD, etc.

Apple just keeps repeating the same business model:

1. Build an audience and a fan following.
2. Create a product that blows their mind.
3. Sell an add-on product to the same audience.
4. Go back to step 2 and laugh all the way to the bank.

To build a big brand, you need to build audiences and products that build off of each other.