A pair of studio-quality headphones could be Apple’s next big product. (Image of Beats headphones for representation)
Apple could release a pair of premium on-ear headphones, dubbed “AirPods X”, as early as March. That’s according to Target, a popular retailer in the US. YouTuber John Prosser took to Twitter to show what’s being claimed to be a Target inventory scanner, which clearly shows a product called the “AirPods X”. Prosser tweeted that several Target employees had reached out to him about the AirPods X.
The listing shows a price tag of $399 (roughly Rs 28,683). That might not seem high for a pair of premium on-ear headphones, considering similar offerings from Bose, Samsung and Sennheiser cost in the vicinity of $399. For example, the $399 Bose 700 on-ear headphones feature active noise cancellation and excellent sound quality.
Multiple reports in the past have claimed that Apple plans to release a pair of high-end on-ear headphones in 2020. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo was first to report that Apple was working on over-ear headphones in 2018. In his research note, he claimed that the headphones will deliver better sound quality.
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Later, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple’s on-ear headphones would be separate from its Beats line up of headphones. According to Gurman, Apple initially planned to release the headphones in 2018, but the launch date moved to 2019 due to “development challenges”. However, the latest reports suggest that Apple’s over-ear headphones could go on sale in 2020.
Multiple Target employees have started reaching out to me about this 🤔
Showing up in their systems and on UPC scanners is this mysterious “Apple AirPods (X Generation)” listing, priced at $399. 👀
Potentially Apple’s over-ear “StudioPods” headphones. Launch soon (March)? pic.twitter.com/NVcqH8As47
— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) February 22, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Apple is no stranger to high-quality earphones. In 2016, Apple launched the AirPods, which goes onto become the best-selling truly wireless earbuds in the market. Last year, the Cupertino company surprised consumers with the launch of AirPods Pro, a noise-cancelling variant of AirPods costing $249 (roughly Rs 17,899).
