Apple & Balmain partner on special-edition Powerbeats3 & Beats Studio Wireless headphones

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone
Apple has joined with French fashion house Balmain on special editions of its Beats Studio Wireless and Powerbeats3 headphones, echoing marketing tactics adopted with some other Apple wearables, like the Apple Watch.




In both cases the headphones use a unique "Safari" color with metallic gold accents, and conspicuous Balmain branding. For carrying them around, buyers get a matching suede case featuring a Balmain plaque and a coin zipper.

To sell them the two companies have employed model Kylie Jenner, who is appearing in photos and video, including a post on her Instagram feed.

The Balmain Studio Wireless headphones cost $599.95, well above the standard $379.95. That amount is however as much as Alexander Wang's "Dove Gray" color.




The gap is much smaller with the Powerbeats3, as the Balmain version is $249.95 versus the regular product's $199.95.

Apple has increasingly tried to market its products as fashion accessories. Perhaps the most famous example is the first-generation Apple Watch Edition, which used real gold and cost upwards of $10,000. The most fashion consciously fashion Series 2 Watch is the Hermes, which tops out at $1,499.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    EdmontonGuyEdmontonGuy Posts: 22member
    Hello Apple, less fashion and much better sound quality should be the priority.  Returned a set of Beats and replaced with Jaybirds - which provide a vastly superior sound.  
    SnickersMagoo
  • Reply 2 of 8
    SnickersMagooSnickersMagoo Posts: 76member
    Hey Ed, I could not agree with more....Fashion has never helped things sound better...it takes actually engineering for that to happen...
  • Reply 3 of 8
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    Since when did Beats care about sound quality?
  • Reply 4 of 8
    NY1822NY1822 Posts: 621member
    • Beats had a 25 percent share (unit sales) and a 46 percent share (dollar sales)
    • Apple had a 2 percent share (unit sales) and 3 percent share (dollar sales)
    • Bose had 8 percent (unit sales) and 19 percent (dollar sales)
    • LG had 10 percent (unit sales) and 7 percent (dollar sales) with Sony at 7 percent (unit sales) and 6 percent (dollar sales)
    • Plantronics and Jaybird were at around 2 percent unit sales each 
    Solianantksundaram
  • Reply 5 of 8
    macky the mackymacky the macky Posts: 4,801member
    UG-LEE!!!
  • Reply 6 of 8
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    EdmontonGuy said:
    Hello Apple, less fashion and much better sound quality should be the priority.  Returned a set of Beats and replaced with Jaybirds - which provide a vastly superior sound.  
    There's absolutely nothing wrong with the fashion. They just need to upgrade the intervals.

    macky the macky said:
    UG-LEE!!!

    The entire industry is copying Beats so can't be too ugly. 
    bshank
  • Reply 7 of 8
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    EdmontonGuy said:
    Hello Apple, less fashion and much better sound quality should be the priority.  Returned a set of Beats and replaced with Jaybirds - which provide a vastly superior sound.  
    Returned a set of Jaybirds who refused to charge after a single session. Even after tweaking with their rather nifty app, the bass was much weaker than the PowerBeats3. All down to personal preference, except the reliability, which is down to poor engineering. 
    bshank
  • Reply 8 of 8
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,404member
    Ah, cue the envy bullshit. Newsflash: Hey, if someone wants to buy it and enjoy it, it's their prerogative. If no one wants to, it'll be shut down.
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