Being better doesn't make them less of a copy. Fast charging was a thing before Apple put it in AirPods. Motorola did the pausing trick long before Apple and I believe Bose or Sony did it too.

Managing to best everyone else at their best feature is what the AirPods do but nothing they do is innovative.

The very definition of the word "innovative" is "featuring new methods, both advanced and original." If Apple has been able to best everyone at their best feature, then, by definition, AirPods are innovative since they do things that nobody else has ever been able to do before, right?

> "featuring new methods, both advanced and original."

When you Google the word "innovative" that's almost the definition that comes up, only slightly different punctuation. Google says "featuring new methods; advanced and original."

In any case it's stating that to be innovative the method must be new, advanced, AND original. If it's not all three, then it's not innovative.

I'd be very interested in an objective comparison between AirPods and every other true wireless earbud that existed at the time. I have no doubt the AirPods would win on nearly any measure.