Apple plans to introduce over-the-ear headphones with replaceable parts this year

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and Debby Wu have penned yet another report revealing inside information on Apple’s product plans, citing people familiar with the matter. Today’s report is all about headphones: Apple is developing over-ear headphones and plans to introduce them later this year.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, Apple is developing two versions of the headphones. One would be fitness-oriented, with breathable materials and perforations, similar in some respects to fitness-focused Apple Watch bands and accessories. The other would aim for a premium feel, with “leather-like fabrics.” Interestingly, the sources claim that Apple will make some components of these headphones modular. The headband padding and ear pads are attached to the headphones with magnets and are replaceable.

That’s obviously important because earpads are sometimes the first part of high-end headphones to go and need replacing, but also because it opens up opportunities for users to buy and install aesthetic customizations. It also means users could switch between the premium and fitness configurations as needed, provided they have purchased the attachments for both configurations.

Both headsets are described as having a “retro” appearance “with oval-shaped ear cups that swivel and a headband connected by thin, metal arms.” The report adds that the arms “stem from the top of the ear cups rather than the sides.”

The headphones would offer noise cancellation and compete with premium offerings from competing tech companies that sell for about $350—this is interesting, because Apple already offers competitive headphones at that price point via its Beats brand. It’s unclear how these will be differentiated besides this magnetic components concept. The report seems to imply that these headphones will not be Beats branded, but it’s not entirely clear.

We’ve seen rumors that Apple was working on something like this repeatedly, and this report bears those out, mentioning that Apple has been working on this concept since 2018 at the latest but has postponed the product multiple times.

Beyond these product details, the Bloomberg report discusses at some length how the COVID-19 crisis has negatively impacted Apple’s ability to develop new products like this.

Apple’s wearables business, which includes the Apple Watch and both AirPods and AirPods Pro, has been one of its fastest growing. AirPods and AirPods Pro have both been huge sellers, though some AirPods Pro users have expressed frustration about a firmware update that improved bass performance with a side-effect of reducing the effectiveness of the noise-cancellation feature.

Listing image by Jeff Dunn