To paraphrase the immortal words of Public Enemy, Apple is about to bring the noise. Well, to release some new headphones at least. According to a report from Bloomberg, the tech giant is planning to release higher-end AirPods and a set of over-ear headphones in 2019.
The new, premium AirPods are believed to be water-resistant (unfortunately for lovers of water sports, not waterproof) and have noise-canceling functionality. The report also suggests that the standard AirPods will be updated soon with a new chip and the ability to use Siri hands-free, which will be… alright, I guess.
What excites me more is Apple potentially releasing its first pair of proprietary over-ear headphones. Currently, details are scarce on what technology the headphones will contain. But, looking at competitors and the Apple-owned Beats brand, we can assume some things. Namely, that they’ll be wireless (unless Apple takes this is an opportunity to bring back the headphone jack), include noise-canceling functionality and have some sort of Siri activation or integration.
The top-end, over-ear headphone market is already brimming with terrific products – like the Sony WH-1000MX2’s or the Sennheiser HD 820’s – so it’ll be intriguing to see if Apple can carve out a market segment and get audiophiles on its side. My thoughts? The former, probably, the latter, unlikely.
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Still, the company might not care too much about this, as it’ll be undoubtedly aiming for the discerning high-earner, rather than the audio nerd who probably already hates the company. Stay tuned for more details.
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