I almost died of laughter at the gym last year. I was plodding away on a treadmill listening to Bill Burr complain about his new iPhone. To be more precise, he was ranting about his new iPhone's lack of a headphone jack and how he kept losing those Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone adapter. While on the road, he eventually lost one too many of the annoying little things, headed to a nearby Apple store and asked to all the adapters they had in stock because he had accepted the fact that he'd ultimately lose them all.
The story cut too close to home. As a wired headphone holdout (I refuse to charge my headphones, and I love my Klipsches), I've gone through several headphones adapters myself.
As we all know by now, the latest iPhones don't have a standard headphone jack. It's become a common "feature" for new smartphones, with manufacturers betting that consumer will ultimately switch to wireless headphoens. They're partially right, too, as Apple's ($AAPL) wireless AirPods headphones continue to top sales charts.
But consistently right behnd AirPods on Best Buy's sales charts are those tiny adapters that Bill Burr and I keep losing. Below is a snapshot of the best-selling products at Best Buy for today:
Best Buy Sales Ranks: June 26, 2018
|
Name |
Brand |
UPC |
Category Rank |
Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Amazon - Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote - Black |
Amazon |
848719083781 |
12 |
39.99 |
|
Apple - AirPods - White |
Apple |
888462858410 |
14 |
159.99 |
|
Apple - Lightning-to-3.5mm Headphone Adapter - White |
Apple |
190198001757 |
22 |
9.99 |
|
2-Year Geek Squad Product Replacement |
Geek Squad® |
400047370010 |
34 |
9.99 |
|
Webroot Internet Security + Antivirus 2018 (3-Device) (6 Month Subscription) - Android|Windows|iOS [Digital] |
Webroot |
400064109327 |
35 |
29.99 |
|
AppleCare+ for Apple Watch - 2 Year Plan |
Apple |
888462697774 |
37 |
49 |
|
Apple - EarPods with Lightning Connector - White |
Apple |
190198001696 |
39 |
23.99 |
|
Dell - Inspiron 15.6" Laptop - AMD A6-Series - 4GB Memory - AMD Radeon R4 - 500GB Hard Drive - Black |
Dell |
884116277453 |
41 |
219.99 |
|
Apple - Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS), 42mm Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - Space Gray Aluminum |
Apple |
190198509598 |
44 |
359 |
|
Internet Security (3-Device) (6 Month Subscription) - Android|Mac|Windows|iOS [Digital] |
Trend Micro |
400064111559 |
45 |
29.99 |
Amazon's Fire TV Stick continues to be a top seller, but right after it and the aforementioned AirPods is our Lightning-to-3.5mm Headphone Adapter. Ever since the adapter was available in October 2016, it's been a consistent best-seller at Best Buy.
The above chart shows the Lightning-to-3.5mm Headphone Adapter's sales rank at Best Buy for the past couple years. A lower sales rank, of course, is better. As you can see, the adapter has been a top-25 seller for the better part of the past year.
It's hard to say how much profit is in these dongles — they contain tiny digital-to-analog converters — but the fact remains that it's the company's second-best-selling product at America's number-one electronics retailer, ahead of its EarPods and Apple Watch.
