New Apple headphone project possibly hampered by multiple re-designs, coming no earlier th...

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 30
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    tht said:
    If this rumor is true is Apple saying it knows many customers won’t buy anything with Beats branding? Or is this a signal that the Beats brand is fading and will slowly be phased out? I remember when the Best Buy headphone section used to be nothing but Beats. Now Beats gets one corner and shares space with lots of other brands.
    I think Apple is thinking:

    Beats branded products are for the market at large, including Android, PC, DAP, CD players, etc. They would use headphone jacks, Micro USB or USB-C, and Bluetooth.

    Apple branded music products are for existing Apple customers. Apple is headed towards using wireless only for all their accessories. Lightning if it really needs a lot of power, with the possible exception of the EarPods which are wired for cost reasons.

    So, Beats stays for the foreseeable future.


    So the point of these headphones is Tim Cook’s current business model for Apple: extracting more money out of existing iPhone users.
  • Reply 22 of 30
    tht said:
    If this rumor is true is Apple saying it knows many customers won’t buy anything with Beats branding? Or is this a signal that the Beats brand is fading and will slowly be phased out? I remember when the Best Buy headphone section used to be nothing but Beats. Now Beats gets one corner and shares space with lots of other brands.
    I think Apple is thinking:

    Beats branded products are for the market at large, including Android, PC, DAP, CD players, etc. They would use headphone jacks, Micro USB or USB-C, and Bluetooth.

    Apple branded music products are for existing Apple customers. Apple is headed towards using wireless only for all their accessories. Lightning if it really needs a lot of power, with the possible exception of the EarPods which are wired for cost reasons.

    So, Beats stays for the foreseeable future.


    So the point of these headphones is Tim Cook’s current business model for Apple: extracting more money out of existing iPhone users.
    That's not exactly limiting.  It's like Amazon trying to sell more stuff to existing Amazon customers (i.e., most people and virtually everyone relevant for Apple products).
  • Reply 23 of 30
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    I'm fine with the design in the mock up as long as that thick band is also containing battery strips. Yeah, let say the headset lasts a week with 1 charge.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 24 of 30
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    tht said:
    If this rumor is true is Apple saying it knows many customers won’t buy anything with Beats branding? Or is this a signal that the Beats brand is fading and will slowly be phased out? I remember when the Best Buy headphone section used to be nothing but Beats. Now Beats gets one corner and shares space with lots of other brands.
    I think Apple is thinking:

    Beats branded products are for the market at large, including Android, PC, DAP, CD players, etc. They would use headphone jacks, Micro USB or USB-C, and Bluetooth.

    Apple branded music products are for existing Apple customers. Apple is headed towards using wireless only for all their accessories. Lightning if it really needs a lot of power, with the possible exception of the EarPods which are wired for cost reasons.

    So, Beats stays for the foreseeable future.


    So the point of these headphones is Tim Cook’s current business model for Apple: extracting more money out of existing iPhone users.
    Isn't that what all companies want? Sticky and loyal customers? You think Amazon doesn't sell the Echo as a gateway to sell more crap from Amazon?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 25 of 30
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    jungmark said:
    tht said:
    If this rumor is true is Apple saying it knows many customers won’t buy anything with Beats branding? Or is this a signal that the Beats brand is fading and will slowly be phased out? I remember when the Best Buy headphone section used to be nothing but Beats. Now Beats gets one corner and shares space with lots of other brands.
    I think Apple is thinking:

    Beats branded products are for the market at large, including Android, PC, DAP, CD players, etc. They would use headphone jacks, Micro USB or USB-C, and Bluetooth.

    Apple branded music products are for existing Apple customers. Apple is headed towards using wireless only for all their accessories. Lightning if it really needs a lot of power, with the possible exception of the EarPods which are wired for cost reasons.

    So, Beats stays for the foreseeable future.


    So the point of these headphones is Tim Cook’s current business model for Apple: extracting more money out of existing iPhone users.
    Isn't that what all companies want? Sticky and loyal customers? You think Amazon doesn't sell the Echo as a gateway to sell more crap from Amazon?
    Apple can’t have sticky/loyal customers without (nearly) every product existing as an iPhone accessory? Then Apple might as well change its name to iPhone, Inc.
  • Reply 26 of 30
    thttht Posts: 5,421member
    fallenjt said:
    I'm fine with the design in the mock up as long as that thick band is also containing battery strips. Yeah, let say the headset lasts a week with 1 charge.
    I’m kind of hoping for about 10 to 12 hrs. ;) It’s a really a comment about what Apple could do with a high pair of headphones, not that actually want less runtime.

    While more is obviously better, 10 to 12 hours will be a sign that Apple is doing something unique. Beats Studio 3 is advertised to have 20 hrs with noise cancellation on and 40 hours with noise cancellation off. That’s pretty long to me and Apple is not doing anything unique if it is a badge engineered Studio 3 with better tuning. I question or am skeptical of longer life above and beyond 20 hrs being able to a sell a pair of headphones. And, longer battery life is rarely a metric by which Apple competes, which feeds into the thought in the prior sentence. Once you get to good enough, anything above that is at best an incremental feature.

    Apple typically competes on:
    1. Ease of use
    2. Convenience
    3. Fit and finish
    4. Some unique technical features

    That to me means a comfortable pair that doesn’t make you sweat, fits comfortably around the ears, will be convenient to pair (we know this will be true), will be convenient to charge maybe (carrying case that charges? Inductive charging?), and maybe unique technical features like a microphone array designed for both noise cancellation and voice assistant, and computational audio with multiple drivers for great sound reproduction, including down in the low frequencies.

    That computational audio would require it to use an A8 or A9 SoC, some storage, and run a variant of iOS like the HomePod, and in effect, making it a pair of smart headphones. If it was just a regular pair of headphones, I don’t understand why Apple would even bother.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 27 of 30
    michelb76michelb76 Posts: 612member
    "One tester reported that he had no idea how to put them on correctly as it was a solid piece of aluminum."
    lkrupp said:
    Typical rumor mill machinations. It’s coming. It’s delayed. It’s being redesigned. It’s coming again. Manufacturing has hit a snag and it’s delayed again. When will we ever learn?
    They cover all the bases so they can’t be wrong,  ;)
    You're going to be in treble with that joke.
  • Reply 28 of 30
    Making over ear headphones would only make sense if 
    apple was planning on dismantling Beats.  Which would be a good idea.
  • Reply 29 of 30
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    jungmark said:
    tht said:
    If this rumor is true is Apple saying it knows many customers won’t buy anything with Beats branding? Or is this a signal that the Beats brand is fading and will slowly be phased out? I remember when the Best Buy headphone section used to be nothing but Beats. Now Beats gets one corner and shares space with lots of other brands.
    I think Apple is thinking:

    Beats branded products are for the market at large, including Android, PC, DAP, CD players, etc. They would use headphone jacks, Micro USB or USB-C, and Bluetooth.

    Apple branded music products are for existing Apple customers. Apple is headed towards using wireless only for all their accessories. Lightning if it really needs a lot of power, with the possible exception of the EarPods which are wired for cost reasons.

    So, Beats stays for the foreseeable future.


    So the point of these headphones is Tim Cook’s current business model for Apple: extracting more money out of existing iPhone users.
    Isn't that what all companies want? Sticky and loyal customers? You think Amazon doesn't sell the Echo as a gateway to sell more crap from Amazon?
    Apple can’t have sticky/loyal customers without (nearly) every product existing as an iPhone accessory? Then Apple might as well change its name to iPhone, Inc.
    Your bizarre leaps in logic get funnier by the day. 🙄
  • Reply 30 of 30
    mauijoe said:
    It isn't mainly Apple customers who have a poor view of BEATS it the audio gear community! Though those groups do intersect 😄
    Yeah Beats headphones have very poor audio quality.  Nice bass but not mids or treble.  Bought a pair 3 or 4 years ago and now they’ve been replaced by a Bose set.  The Beats I just use in the gym
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