Apple headphones... Apple missed the boat with the headphone market?

[k2snow]

Good day.

After shopping and buying nearly $1000 worth of headphones for the holidays, I cannot help but find myself thinking... "Apple has really missed the boat on the headphone market..."

You got BEATS, Bose, Monster, Bower&Wilkins, SOUL, and sooooo many more making a killing in this market. All the while Apple debuts... earpods?

Does anyone else think that Apple has missed the boat on this latest personal music boom?

I loved my Beats. Bulky and a little too loud for those in your surroundings, the Studio Beats are really nice.

I really loved my Bower and Wilkins P5 as well and will probably keep them handy.

I think Apple already has a captive market for these and needs to act quick.

[Scepticalscribe]

I'm not so sure that it is a case of Apple 'missing the boat' on headphones as much as Apple failing to realise that there may well be a market for well made, attractively designed headphones which deliver an excellent sound experience.

Of course, it could well be a strategic decision, a decision not to clutter up their product range with what they might consider to be extraneous products.

In any case, I have spent several years looking for decent headphones: By 'decent', I mean a pair that is not massive in size, is good looking, is solidly designed, and comfortable, as well as (the whole point of headphones, needless to say) a pair that offers excellent sound quality.

Eventually, this year, I alighted on the B&W P3s and the B&W P5s, both of which I have found to be excellent, comfortable and stylish headphones.

[towg]

I've wondered why Apple havent decided to branch into headphones as the market is largely taken up by youngsters 'hipster' brands that rely a lot on aesthetics rather than performance. And Apple excel at stylish and modernistic design. (Of course thats not to say they cant perform too).

I had the P5s and sold them as I preferred my Sen HD595s. The P5s are overpriced and i was glad to be rid of them as the frequency range was way too flat and uninvolving. They tended to hurt my ears after half an hours use too.

[xMClass]

I quite like my earpods. I don't understand all the hate towards them. Have you actually tried them? They're probably one of the most comfortable in-ear headphones I've ever used. Sure, the sound quality could be better, but for the price, you can't expect $100+ sound quality out of some plastic headphones that cost $29. Apple's old earphones were junk. And so were those $80 in-ear dual driver headphones too. But the earpods are actually something decent.

[Jessica Lares]

I'm going on another pair of EarPods, this will be my 4th pair. They all end up the same way, the sound muffled/gets very low. They sound great and feel great, but they get destroyed too easily.

I prefer my Sennheiser headphones, but they look ridiculous on an iPod Nano.

[Mrbobb]

Apple is been telling you, "We concentrate on a few products, and do them well."

Everybody thinks they got a Slick-50 that can make their car run better than the people who designed it.

[TMRaven]

I don't think Apple wants to enter such an embarrassing facet of the market. All these fashionable full-sized portable headphones, you see people wearing around their neck 9 times out of 10 and actually on their ears 1/10. Whenever they do have them on their ears, there's no music playing.