Airpods Pro will be a grave digger with headphones

By jan.jiang@dgbosta.com Nov ,6 , 2019

Airpods pro is on the market, and truewireless headsets will enter a new era.

After I experienced the noise reductioncapability of Airpods Pro, I was sure that Apple's opponents were almost absentin the active noise reduction wireless headset within 3 years.

Why do you say this?

Let's take a look at Apple's competitors,such as SONY, BOSE, Huawei, VIVO, etc. Other technology giants have not yetactively de-noised true wireless headphones.

Apple's noise reduction level is alreadythe top in the industry. Compared to the SONY that has already been shipped,the BOSE active noise reduction wireless headset is also on the same level. Asa consumer, even if you use BOSE Soundport free or SONY 1000XM3, it isdifficult to distinguish the level of noise reduction.

In fact, it doesn't make sense todistinguish it. Because everyone's ears have different levels of psychologicalperception. Different people wearing the same earphones may feel different.

However, the role of Apple's headset in theentire system ecology is completely different from the status of SONY and BOSE.

Headphones have become an importantaccessory since the era of smartphones, but the characters here are stillsupporting roles. At this stage, headsets are more dominated by professionalacoustic brands such as SONY, BOSE, Sennheiser, Beats, and more.

Calm is from the pursuit of thin and lightmobile phone design, canceled the 3.5mm interface began to break. Wiredheadsets have become historical sinners, everyone shouted, Bluetooth headsetshave become the new darling of the mobile phone accessories market, the globaltotal of already large Bluetooth headsets continue to grow in the secondspring.

In another line, the technical curve ofartificial intelligence has entered a new stage of growth and has become asought after target for all technology manufacturers. Everyone has entered themarket with anxiety and excitement.

At the intersection of two time points,mobile phone manufacturers suddenly realized that true wireless headphones areactually the most important extension of mobile phones. It is not only the pathto listen to music, but also the entrance of intelligent services. That is tosay, headphones are beginning to affect. User evaluation of the experience ofthe mobile phone. Many people in the mobile phone industry have combined thistrue wireless headset with a mobile phone, which is called an integratedexperience.

What can affect the user's core experienceof the mobile phone, how can it rely on external manufacturers to do it? Somobile phone manufacturers have started to make their own headphones, and it isused to do the accuracy and requirements of mobile phones.

Apple was the first and most determined tofollow this path, while other manufacturers saw that after Apple came out, theydiscovered that there was gold on the road.

Seeing here, everyone should be able tounderstand that the market for Bluetooth wireless headsets has not been amarket that expresses acoustic strength or individuality fashion as it was afew years ago. It is a market where mobile phone manufacturers are engaged intechnology investment, capital and talents.

So, why are these related to headphones?

Once, when we said headphones, it was not awired headset, it was a headset.

However, with the development of wirelesstechnology, the most mainstream representative of the headset is the wirelessBluetooth headset, which includes what we call a true wireless Bluetoothheadset, a wireless headset or a sports Bluetooth headset. Wired headsets havegradually become more differentiated. One side is the HIFI cable thatprofessional enthusiasts need. The other side is the wired headset that the newgeneration sends by mobile phone. However, the past performance of the massconsumer market proves that portability is higher than the sound quality.

Today's headphones, listeners choose thereasons are often divided into the following three:

1. Professional gamers, because the gamehas a high latency and multi-channel requirements.

2. Professional music practitioners or consumerswho have requirements for sound quality need to listen to real sounds or needbetter sound requirements than small headphones.

3. Noise reduction commuting just neededbusiness people, they shuttle in the plane high-speed rail subway, need to isolateall the sounds that have nothing to do with themselves.

Let's talk about the people who need noisereduction. The former king is BOSE, and the rising star SONY. A large part oftheir product line is still derived from the popular active noise reductionheadphones.

But now that Airpods Pro has joined thebattle, the situation has changed dramatically. Apple did not actively reducethe burden of headphones, the Beats bought before also began to use the H1 chipto launch true wireless headphones.

In terms of portability (size), whether itis BOSE or SONY headphones or true wireless noise canceling headphones,compared with Airpods Pro, it has been eclipsed, no one can do the same, butthe noise reduction ability is also strong .

Functionally speaking, there is no doubtthat Apple headphones are the best combination with Apple phones, and the rolesof BOSE and SONY are still supporting roles.

In terms of sound quality, Airpods Prosound quality is not as good as BOSE and SONY for many years, but Apple's soundquality is not bad, not bad. This is not bad, it is relative to the group whoused the mobile phone with the headset before, for users who are morefunctional than the sound quality, users who have used the normal wirelessheadset, even those who have used Airpods.

From the perspective of psychologicalaccounts, the price of Airpods Pro has been similar to that of mainstreamnoise-reducing headphones, which will occupy more consumer budgets. It is stilldifficult to get rid of the shrinking market.

From the perspective of the entire market,Apple should first focus on and attract the group of technology-sensitivepeople, relying on the best technology experience plus good sound quality. Thepeople targeted by SONY and BOSE are the people who have a strong preferencefor the sound style and have a high and low sound quality, and this groupaccounts for a part of the entire consumer market.

Therefore, defeating the noise reductionheadset in the noise reduction true wireless headset is a destined thing.

Turning back to the game player crowd andthe senior music hobby people mentioned above, the headphones are also greatlyaffected. Not because of the challenges of Airpods Pro itself, but because ofthe moat brought by the high-tech performance of Airpods Pro, forcing otherfollow-up vendors to compete differently, and the game and music crowd is themain battlefield.

Let me talk about the game scene first.

Playing games on the PC is still themainstream, but the mobile game has a wider mass base. This kind of demandswitching will make the PC game player group appear smaller and smaller, whilethe mobile game player has a sharp increase in demand for headphones. Andwireless headphones playing games on the mobile side still face the problem ofdelay and multi-channel.

The delay problem of the mobile terminal,who is the most capable of solving? Telecom technology is shared for mobilephone manufacturers. In the end, it is still solved by mobile phone operatingsystem and APP ecosystem. The world's best mobile operating system ecosystem isin Apple, whether it is 50 milliseconds or 100 milliseconds, if the software isoptimized. Synchronization, in fact, the headset does not need to do too muchinvestment. The truth is that Apple's many games or video apps are alreadydoing this, and Android performance varies by version and handset manufacturer.

Multi-channel game, not relying on Apple'stechnology breakthrough, but need to rely on the Bluetooth protocol to breakthrough, this can only wait for technology updates. However, in the same scene,if everyone hears the same voice, it is fair, and ordinary players will not bedeliberately picky.

Let's talk about the music scene.

There are three facts that must beacknowledged.

First, the sound quality that can be outputfrom the headphone speaker and the cavity is not possible with small headphonessuch as true wireless.

Second, there are still a small number ofpeople in the world who have high requirements for sound quality.

Third, after the establishment of the trackof the true wireless headset, the fierce market competition will greatlypromote the sound quality performance of the wireless headset, whether it isfrom the speaker technology, wireless protocol or public psychology.

Based on these three points, headsets willalways be measured by price-sensitive consumers on a cost-effective scale andwireless headphones. After a long period of technical iteration, true wirelessheadsets will get closer and closer to headsets, both in terms of experience andcost.

Summarizing all of the above, headsets maybecome an increasingly niche but firm market for some time to come, like avinyl record, forever loved.

Borrowing a great man's speech, there is aghost that wanders in the headset market.