It occurred to me, as I watched a person using an iPod walk by, that iPod headphones are dorky. The person walking by was already a Silicon-Valley-type, but as I think about it, I am quite certain that the iPod headphones make him look far more dorky than without.

They cry for attention; they're whiteness stands out and says, "Here I am, I have an iPod, please think I'm hip," which doesn't go unnoticed by muggers. The ear buds shaping is crude, and they don't even have great sound quality. The remote is also a piece of crap, and given that it can't actually clip to anything properly, it's only purpose in life seems to be to make the white cord even longer and more noticeable.

I'm sure all of this makes for great branding and fun advertisements for spoofing, but why, with such a great product to plug into, must they be so dorky?