iPhone Accessories

by Joshua Mitchell  |  April 3, 2009

After buying an iPhone, the next most important step is buying the accessories. We need accessories to help us benefit entirely of the iPhone and to adapt it to our daily needs. Taking into account the large amount of accessories available now on the market, I'll try to shed some more light on this matter and separate the “good”, compatible accessories from the “bad” ones, that can harm our iPhone.

Headphones, Headsets and Earphones

By now it is widely known that the iPhone is a smartphone, an Internet tool and an advanced iPod. So our immediate need is to buy some earphones or headphones or headsets. The difference between those three is their age. The headphones were the first to see daylight and they imply a stereo system. As time passed by, the dimension of the headphones shrunk becoming smaller and smaller and so the headsets appeared. The earphones are the ones that fit in or over the year and are thought to be the smallest. Their popularity has grown with the appearance of the iPod. I'll use in this article the term “earphones” to denominate all the related products.

The earphones are one of the most important accessories and it's no wonder that the earphones industry has developed, until now, no more than 11 earphones models starting with the classical earbuds and finishing with the newest waterproof earphones. So, the attempt to find the most suitable earphones for your ears and at the same time the ones to offer the desired acoustical quality can be quite challenging.

The first place that I went on looking for such an important accessory is “Apple Retail Store”. There I found more than 30 models starting from $15 and up to $350. The available models include the standard earbuds, over the ear phones, canalphones, wireless earphones (the most expensive ones), griffin ear thumps, bluetooth earphones plus other, and you can also go for the model - earphone plus microphone. The models are compatible both with the iPhone and different models of iPod. When you spend time picking a pair of earphones, you should consider how much time you will be spending actually using them, because depending on this amount of time, you can either go for comfy over the year phones or wireless ones (for the hard - core listener), or ultra-light, outside sound-proof in-ear phones, which are good when traveling, but not when walking by foot, because you won't even hear cars passing by!

On iWorld – a site from UK - I found more models of earphones (even the waterproof earphones from Aquapack) of different brands and of different colors, including pink (iStuff 808 Bass Sound Isolating Earphones – Pink). All the earphones presented here are said to be compatible with different models of iPhone and of the iPod. Here the price range starts from 10 to 50 £ .

Other places where you can buy compatible earphones are, of course, on Amazon and eBay. Here the prices get even lower to $4. Now the problem is whether to buy a cheap “so called compatible” earphone for your iPhone or not. If you are attracted by the price keep in mind the fact that such a product can harm a $200 value iPhone and are not built to resist. On the other hand, neither are those that come for free with an iPhone model, but my guess is that they do last a tad longer than cheap anonymous brand ones. In my opinion, it is better to buy earphones that you know that are compatible, even tough they might have a starting price three times bigger. Regarding the earphones matter, the price reflects (to a large extent) their quality, and if you don't want neither your iPhone, nor your ears to break down (this year, only in US kids and teens suffered to a great extent from a disease called "induced hearing loss", which is an affection caused by long periods of time listening to loud music through in-ear phones) you should consider buying a pair of suitable earphones as an investment in your personal health.

Next articles in this series:

1. iPhone Accessories: Headphones, Headsets, Earphones
2. iPhone Accessories: lots and lots of Cases
3. iPhone Car Accessories - Part 1
4. iPhone Car Accessories - Part 2
5. The Ultimate iPhone Accessories

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