That’s what we call a teeny tiny fuckup. Beats sent a press release to iGen.fr and other French media outlets saying that they should expect new Beats products on September 7 during Apple’s press conference. There was also a screenshot of the official Apple media invite so that it was 100% clear for everyone that Beats was talking about Apple’s event.
But this leak is interesting for a few reasons. Apple doesn’t usually take the time to talk about Beats products during its press conferences. And yet, while Apple acquired Beats to build Apple Music, the company hasn’t killed Beats’ headphones business. You can walk into an Apple Store and buy all sorts of Beats headphones.
It’s highly likely that Apple is going to unveil the iPhone 7 on September 7. And rumor has it that the iPhone 7 will drop the good old headphone port. So everyone is left wondering what’s going to ship with the iPhone, and what Apple is going to sell.
A recent leak indicates that Apple could ship the iPhone 7 with Lightning EarPods as well as a Lightning-to-headphone adaptor. Given that Apple loves to upsell you with accessories, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple also introduced premium, wireless options. iPhone sales are currently losing steam, and the company needs to find new ways to squeeze as many dollars as possible from iPhone buyers. And that’s where Beats headphones are going to take center stage.
While Beats already has wireless headphones in its line-up, image some new Beats headphones with a revolutionary wireless protocol that sounds better than Bluetooth. Imagine headphones with a Lightning port so that you can charge them with your iPhone cable. I could see all of this happening on September 7. Apple has also trademarked the word AirPods, maybe the company is going to use this name next week.
With today’s leak, we know for sure that Apple is going to talk about headphones on September 7. Now, let’s see how customers react to the drastic audio port change.
