What you need to know
- U.S. Customs is seizing a record number of fake AirPods this year.
- The agency has confiscated over 360,000 counterfeit wireless headphones over 9 months.
- The value of the headphones has surpassed $62 million.
Fake AirPods have always been on the market since Apple launched the wireless earbuds back in 2016. However, U.S. Customs has never seen the level of counterfeits being shipped into the country as it has in the last nine months.
As reported by The Information, over 360,000 fake wireless headphones have been seized in the last nine months with a total value of over $62 million. The agency says that, in comparison, it had only seized about $3.3 million worth of counterfeit headphones just a coupld of years ago.
Roughly 360,000 counterfeit wireless headphones with a retail value of $62.2 million were confiscated in the first nine months of the U.S. government's fiscal year, which starts in October, according to previously unreported data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That has surpassed both the quantity and the retail value of counterfeit wireless headphones seized in all of fiscal 2020, when 295,000 pairs worth $61.7 million were seized.The numbers are up dramatically from 2019, when the agency nabbed $3.3 million worth of headphones.
Apple's AirPods quickly became the most popular wireless headphones in the entire headphone market soon after they launched. Today, Apple's AirPods line is so sucessful that it would be a Fortune 100 company if it was a separate company from Apple itself.
The AirPods lineup now includes the AirPods, AirPods Pro, and recently released AirPods Max over-ear headphones. The company is expected to reveal the next generation of AirPods later this year.
If you want to take your AirPods to the next level, check out our list of the Best AirPods & AirPods 2 cases 2021.
The best wireless earphones for most Apple users
With a new, optional, wireless charging case and dedicated H1 headphone chipset, AirPods take everything great — and not so great — about the originals and add faster pairing and switching, lower latency, extra talk time, and always-on 'Hey Siri' at your command.
