Apple makes the world's most popular camera, but does the company also make the world's most popular audio products?

Think of Apple, and you think iPhone and Mac, then probably iPad, and then probably Apple Watch. When someone points to AirPods, you say, “Of course!” but aren’t they just accessories? Except Apple’s audio offering is exceptional on every front. From AirPods, to HomePods, to the speakers in the MacBook Pro and iPhone. They’re better than almost everything else, and we don’t even notice.

"I have OG HomePods in my studio with a wall of baffler panels behind them. The sound quality is absolutely insane and I seriously doubt it could be better without spending tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds. I also have an AppleTV connected to them and as a cinematic experience I much prefer them to the 7.1 home cinema system we have in the living room. The fact that they do both things so well is a miracle, the demands of each are so different. They are one of my all-time favourite purchases," replied iPad-first musician FastGhost in a music forum post started by Lifewire.

Thanks to its size, even Apple’s smallest niche products are big things. In 2019, one estimate put Apple’s AirPods business alone at $175 billion . And that’s just an accessory line for Apple. The difference is that Apple can throw significant resources at small problems when it wants to. In 2015, The Verge’s Chris Welch reported that 800 people worked on the iPhone’s camera.