Bose Launches $99 Noise-Cancelling Wired Earbuds as U.S. Presale Sells Out
Bose has released $99/£99 Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds with ANC and an inline remote but no app, settings or AI. President Raza Haider tells TechRadar the product was inspired by a campus trend and growing privacy concerns, and says the U.S. presale sold out ahead of a Europe launch on October 15.
Haider said the idea for the wired earbuds came about a year and a half ago, when he was dropping his daughter off at university. He saw wired earbuds everywhere, and his daughter told him they were the coolest things ever, adding that a year earlier students would have made fun of kids who used wired products. Haider said he returned to the office and told his team they should do something about the trend.
Bose saw that many wired products on the market did not have great audio quality and none had noise cancellation, Haider said. He described the new model as a redesign of a product that was a big part of Bose's history and DNA, with a more retro and fun approach. It is an homage to older Bose wired earbuds, he said, keeping the small block in the middle but using retro color blocks rather than the larger design.
The U.S. presale launched on Monday and sold out by Wednesday, according to Haider. He said the European launch is scheduled for October 15.
Haider said there are two dimensions to the return to wired products. One is a larger shift toward less technologically driven products, tied to issues of trust, privacy and digital detox, he said. He said most technology companies will find a way around such concerns and that technology is here to stay, but companies need to do a better job of earning consumers' trust and avoiding the feeling of an invasion of privacy.
The second dimension is convenience, Haider said. He said users can leave the wired earbuds in a bag for weeks without losing a charge, without worrying about a connection and without worrying about a sensitive area. They can pull the earbuds out and plug them physically into a phone, with no app and no settings, he said. Haider also pointed to the physical click into the interface, actual buttons for volume and the feel of the silicone wire as part of the appeal.
Asked whether Bluetooth codecs still cannot quite compete with wired audio for resolution, or whether physical media is simply having a moment, Haider said it is both. He said, "I think the average consumer doesn't know what a Bluetooth codec is, and they couldn't care less."
Haider also addressed Bose's role in open-ear earbuds. He said he is "happy to take credit for making open-ear mass market." The comment came after Bose released two successors to its Ultra Open earbuds and a collaboration on its flagship headphones.