{"id":809,"date":"2016-09-07T13:36:55","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T17:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/?p=809"},"modified":"2016-09-07T15:48:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T19:48:09","slug":"apple-airpods-to-target-high-end-of-headphone-market-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/?p=809","title":{"rendered":"Apple ‘AirPods’ to target high end of headphone market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple’s new wireless earbuds, expected to be announced this week as “AirPods,” are said to feature a custom-designed wireless chip that will be “Bluetooth-like\u201d … targeting the high-end market, with Beats \u00a0positioned in the midrange market\u00a0<\/strong>[emphasis mine]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: Apple ‘AirPods’ to target high end of headphone market with custom ‘Bluetooth-like’ low-power tech<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Like John Gruber,<\/p>\n

Ming-Chi Kuo: \u2018Apple Planning Wireless Headphones to Target Higher-End Than Beats for iPhone\u00a07\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

I saw this report and had the same reaction–This makes no sense. Beats is already positioned as a high end headphone compared to Apple\u2019s EarPods (regardless of where you stand on the audio quality of Beats). How much more expensive are \u201cAirPods\u201d going to be!?<\/p>\n

Personally, while I think there will be some kind of wireless Apple headphones, branded \u201cAirPods\u201d based on Apple\u2019s trademark filings [Leaked Apple trademarks reveal iPhone 7\u2019s smart button, MacBook Pro\u2019s touch bar and more<\/a>], I don\u2019t expect Apple to ship wireless headphones as the standard headphone with the new iPhone. I expect that they will ship a wired headphone which uses the Lightening connector. \u201cAirPods\u201d will be an optional accessory, but more than Beats, I think NOT.<\/p>\n

But with today\u2019s special event about to start, we\u2019ll soon see if I am right.<\/p>\n

UPDATE (2:27 PM EDT):\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>New iPhone 7\/7 Plus ship with Lightening headphones. But\u00a0<\/em>surprisingly, to me at least, Apple is also including a 3.5mm to Lightening adapter. I guess that Apple was worried about the feedback\/resistance. Also\u00a0introducing AirPods.<\/i><\/p>\n

UPDATE (3:30 PM EDT):\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>AirPods to go on sale for $159, Beats are $199-$299. So it looks like Beats are still positioned as the higher end headphones. Phil Schiller\u2019s description of the technology and functionality of the AirPods is amazing. Can\u2019t believe how they packed it all into a pair of earbuds.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple’s new wireless earbuds, expected to be announced this week as “AirPods,” are said to feature a custom-designed wireless chip that will be “Bluetooth-like\u201d … targeting the high-end market, with Beats \u00a0positioned in the midrange market\u00a0[emphasis mine] Source: Apple ‘AirPods’ … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p350KG-d3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pinch-to-zoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}