For as long as companies have sold portable music players, a free pair of headphones has been part of the deal. It started with round, foam-covered, over-the-head models packaged with the original Sony Walkman cassette player in the late 1970s. Nearly 30 years later, the white earbuds included with Apple’s iPod line have become a fashion statement on their own. Fashion statements aside, packaging headphones along with the music player is more about convenience than anything else. And it’s certainly not about sound.
