Plantronics Continues Push Into Consumer Headphones With Premium $249 Set
Plantronics continued its march on the consumer headphone market Wednesday with the launch of its first premium model, the $249 BackBeat PRO wireless Bluetooth active noise-canceling headphones. The company’s first full-size headphone is targeted at the mobile professional, Greg Miller, Plantronics’s category director-mobile entertainment solutions, told Consumer Electronics Daily on a press tour in New York Wednesday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
"We should have done it a long time ago,” Miller said of Plantronics’ move into the premium headphone market, citing the company’s 50-plus years experience in headsets, its retail clout and brand recognition that began in the enterprise market. At launch, Plantronics is selling the PRO headphones at InMotion stores in airports, where the company will have demo stations to help set off the phone from other products, Miller said, and at Amazon.com. Beginning in October, the PRO will sell at wireless carriers, retailers and Hudson News outlets in airports, a new distribution channel for Plantronics, Miller said. It will also sell the phones as part of concept stores within retailers including RadioShack, he said, and it’s working with Apple to find shelf space in Apple stores, he said.
The PRO follows the company’s $129 BackBeat FIT Bluetooth headphones for the fitness crowd that launched in July through cellular carriers. The FIT jumped to NPD’s top 20 stereo Bluetooth headphone chart in the first month, Miller said, citing the company’s “due diligence” in researching the market before developing a product for a particular user. “We nailed it” on reducing pain points, he said, which for the FIT included having an earbud that rested at the outside of the ear to allow in some ambient noise so users can be “aware of your surroundings” while still providing a stable fit and long battery life. The company added the convenience feature of a neoprene storage bag for the headphones that doubles as an armband to hold a phone or music player, he noted.
For the PRO, Plantronics research showed that customer pain points among noise-cancellation headphones were battery life, having a “safety net” in case the phones do run out of juice, providing an immersive active noise-cancellation experience and comfort, Miller said. The wireless PROs claim listening time of 24 hours on a single charge from the lithium polymer battery, but there’s a wired backup option with a 3.5mm cable that plugs into a phone jack. Miller called it a “hybrid approach,” giving consumers the wireless Bluetooth connectivity they want with wired backup in case the battery runs out. Standby power is 21 hours and a DeepSleep “hibernation” mode lasts for six months, Miller said. A half hour of charge time yields 12 hours listening time, he said.
Active noise reduction can be powered off, Miller said, and the “Open Mic” rotary dial on the earcup allows users to raise or lower the microphone level to control the amount of surrounding noise. The fabric storage bags makes it easier to store the headphones in carry-on luggage than do hard cases from competitors, he said.
The PRO has built-in smart sensors that trigger events based on whether the headphones are on or off the head. Putting on the headphone plays music, activates noise canceling or answers a phone call, while taking off the headphones pauses music and deactivates noise canceling, Miller said. Regarding how sensors might be used on future Plantronics headphones, Miller cited biometrics and the possibility of exercise headphones with fitness tracking sensors. He declined to give a timeline for fitness headphone products.
Additional features include 330-foot streaming, near field communication pairing, 60 hours of usage without a charge in noise cancellation-only mode and the ability to connect to two devices simultaneously, according to specs.