apple beats studio buds
12 months ago
Published June 15, 2021 by

Apple wants to stick its buds in Android ears (video)

The world’s biggest smartphone market just got a new pair of earbuds.

From Rene Ritchie’s video review of Beats Studio Buds:

Beats Studio Buds. Black. White. Red. Active Noise Cancelation and Transparency Mode. Small, medium, and large tips. Physical buttons. Full-on, native iOS *AND*… and Android Support. 8 hours of battery in the buds, 16 more in the USB-C charge case. No H1. No Lightning. No head-tracking. No stems. No inductive charging. But — $149.

So, are they better than AirPods?

Cue the video:

My take: This is one secret Apple managed to keep.

7 Comments

  1. Jerry Doyle said:
    It looks that these buds will be very appealing. They seem competitive in performance and style with the Pro, but at a lesser price. It puzzles me that Apple continues to run with the “Beats” brand as I thought Apple planned to drop the brand once Apple integrated all the Beats technology into Apple’s own brand of AirPods. I only can assume that the Beats brand attracted a sizable following of consumers that makes it difficult to kill off the brand.

    5
    June 15, 2021
    • Robert Stack said:
      @Jerry: I think its because Beats has an established brand independent of Apple, along with an independent “cool factor” with a completely different audience. One that perhaps might not want to wear an Apple product, but is likely unaware that Apple now owns Beats. I have limited data from which I’m drawing this inference, but I do have some!

      5
      June 15, 2021
  2. Romeo A Esparrago Jr said:
    Beats me.
    But I think one reason Apple goes cross-platform is exposure of Apple UI/Ux & ease of use. And once an Android or Windows user is ready, Apple has transfer tools waiting for them on their platform to bring them over. Also another advantage for acquiring the already established (and celebrity used) cross-platform brand Beats by Dre into the Apple family.

    8
    June 15, 2021
  3. Kirk DeBernardi said:
    …and the hits just keep on comin’.

    Another audio “sweet spot”.

    Hopefully this product will stave off many alternate competitive choices people might consider.

    6
    June 15, 2021
  4. Bart Yee said:
    If Beats can address Android fans and make money for Apple without affecting Apple’s reputation, then it’s a genius move.

    2
    June 15, 2021
  5. Thomas Williams said:
    beats by dr dre are “a lifestyle symbol.” I was thrilled by Apple’s acquisition of the brand but not necessarily the price tags; acquisition or retail price of headphones. At the time I commuted to an office in Baltimore. Being the pre-eminent Hip Hop brand, I saw co-workers using those $400 headphones in break rooms. Many upgraded annually and took to the rainbow of colors, colors which now flow through many more Apple products.
    Here’s a detailed view of beats by dr dre, the “Beats identity prism (Kapferer)” chart at the very end is a fascinating visual by itself:
    https://skemaheadphonebrandsaudit.wordpress.com/beats-vs-bose/beats/

    0
    June 15, 2021
  6. Daniel Epstein said:
    An odd way to start the article “The world’s biggest smartphone market just got a new pair of earbuds.” It is not like these are exclusive to the Android Phone market? Right? Might as well say “The world’s electronic marketplace got a new pair of earbuds” At least these are not Airpod killers!
    That aside I think we should see that Apple is trying to have a product for low, medium and high price points as well as distinct style differences. Will they be able to maintain feature distinctions over time? I guess the expected update to Airpods Pro will give us a clue.

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    June 15, 2021

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