Just the other day, Jon Prosser revealed in a tweet the name of Apple’s upcoming wireless headphons—the AirPods Studio—and it will retail at $349.
I first heard of Apple’s new project from Mark Gurman when he published an article in Bloomberg. There, he said that Apple is working on a wireless headphone with magnetic earpads and headband. The feature was made so users can customize it to their liking ala Apple Watch.
While replaceable earpads have been standard, making them magnetic isn’t. It’s a relatively new feature that’s only being offered by high-end brands like Bowers & Wilkins. Doing the same for the headband will also be useful in the long run, since it also gets massive wear and tear damage.
At $349, Apple is clearly waging war against Sony’s WH-1000XM3 and Bose’s QuietComfort35 II (and even their own Beats Studio3), which are priced the same. There’s also an Audio Technica ATH-M50xBT, which is also wireless and has studio-grade audio for $199.
Beyond the customization and price point, the clincher for the AirPods Studio would be the mic. While all its competition provides great audio, the mic has always been lackluster in all of them. Hopefully, Apple’s success with the mic of the AirPods Pro carries on to these headphones.
As to why they want to dip their toes in the TWS Headphone arena? In 2019, they reportedly sold almost 60 million units of AirPods. Taking the $160 price of the entry level AirPods, that’s at least $9.6 billion from the AirPods alone. Seeing that Sony and Bose are enjoying their thrones on the other side of the wireless pond, it’s no wonder Apple wants to try there.
If you’re wondering how true this is, just know that Mark Gurman is a journalist that’s covered Apple for a longtime and has provided legit inside info over the years. As for Jon Presser, he accurately predicted the launch of the new iPad Pro, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and the iPhone SE. Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, also blocked Jon on Twitter. I guess that says it all.
