It's in the exact same price range as comparable wireless earbuds, like the Jaybird X2
You're just comparing them to shitty wired $5 chinese earbuds from Amazon in your head. $160 isn't even expensive for earbuds in general, more like lower mid-range.
I don't want a Jaybird so that's not a winning argument for why I would want these.
I'm comparing them to my $90 noise cancelling over ear headphones that, while yes no exactly top tier, don't require their own charging infrastructure and have much better audio quality than stock apple.
I may as well have an entirely separate MP3 player that costs me a good bit less than $160 than deal with this BS.
Just because you personally don't like wireless headphone doesn't mean Apple's overpricing theirs.
Most pure wireless headphones cost more than $150. Are you the target audience? Probably not, but for people who are looking for that type of solution Apple's pricing is very reasonable.
Maybe he's suggesting that headphones are headphones and $150 is too much for what is probably a pretty mediocre pair in terms of audio quality and ease of use.
But the Jaybird are attached to each other so you don't loose them that easily and they work on any phone. Do the Apple wireless AirPods work on any phone? or only devices that pay the W1 licensing fee?
I'm guessing they're using standard bluetooth if paired with something standard, but use something Apple-proprietary when pairing and listening when possible. (NFC-like operation and their own audio codecs on top of bluetooth)
You're just comparing them to shitty wired $5 chinese earbuds from Amazon in your head. $160 isn't even expensive for earbuds in general, more like lower mid-range.