Apple Owns 'Totally Wireless' Headphone Space Despite Supply Constraints, Says Report
Apple’s AirPods, on protracted delivery schedules for most of the year, are showing widespread availability at mainstream e-commerce sites, despite Apple’s own two-to-three-week shipping window on its website. Best Buy showed in-store availability Friday and a shipping delivery date of…
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Wednesday. Target had the $159 earphones with a six-day delivery window Friday and an in-store pickup date of Sept. 8. Despite the supply and demand mismatch over most of the year, Apple was able to take full command of the nascent “totally wireless” headphone space, ringing up 85 percent of sales, according to an NPD report last week. NPD defines the category as headphones with no headband and no wires. More than 900,000 totally wireless headphone units were sold in the U.S. since the start of the year, it said. Apple’s “early domination” of the category will continue to challenge competing brands, said analyst Ben Arnold. “New entrants will have to provide some differentiation in features, sound quality, or associated services and applications in order to stand out,” he said. Voice control could be one such differentiator, Arnold said. “As Alexa skills and other voice-first content diversifies, headphones, including totally wireless earbuds, are the leading candidate to be the next piece of hardware to drive digital assistant adoption.”