Apple Is Leading The American Headphone Market With AirPods, Beats

Apple is apparently dominating the headphone market in the United States right now, thanks to the AirPods and Beats.

9To5Mac reports that both AirPods and Beats boast a considerable 34.4% and 15.3% market share, enough to put them in first and second place. What this means is that the Cupertino giant basically controls half of America's headphone business.

The data comes from Statista, which shows just how much Apple's lead is over other leading headphone manufacturers. Their closest competitor so far is Bose (12.5%), with Samsung not that far behind (12.2%). JBL and Sony are tied in fifth place with 11.4%), while Skullcandy and LG Electronics round up the top eight with 8.4% and 7% market share.

All of the numbers came from a multi-pick survey covering over 4,200 headphone users in the US, aged 16-84. It was conducted between January and December 2021, meaning that the data it collected is quite current.

With a massive 34.4% market share in the United States, AirPods are proving to be an insane payoff for Apple. This was very evident during the last holiday season too, based on rough sales numbers.

In a report by CNBC, it was revealed that 27 million pairs of the newest AirPods were sold during Holiday 2021. This led to a total of 90 million pairs sold for the entire holiday quarter, representing a 20% year-over-year revenue growth.

The massive popularity of the wireless earbuds have made them a $20 billion annual business for the Cupertino giant, and things are only projected to be bigger. Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush securities is predicting that AirPods sales will surpass 100 million units sold by the end of 2022.

All in all, these numbers hint at massive success for Apple's wearable tech division-one whose sales numbers they don't normally divulge. They classify the revenue of this division within their Other Products line, which earned $13 billion in total revenue back during the 2020 holiday quarter alone.

Apple And Beats By Dre: A Beneficial Partnership

The massive popularity of AirPods is already a given. But what about Beats?

Beats By Dre, the headphone company co-founded by legendary hip-hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre alongside Jimmy Iovine, was acquired by Apple in a $3 billion deal way back in 2014. Tim Cook stated that the deal is in line with the company's dedication to "creating innovative music products" (via Apple.com).

During the mid-2010s, Beats By Dre headphones were insanely popular, especially among A-listers. Fast-forward to the 2020s, it seems like their appeal to the public hasn't waned, and it's already proven to be a profitable investment, reports Engadget.

Since the acquisition, a lot has changed for Beats. During the company's first few years, they were criticized for their headphones allegedly featuring poor build quality and too much bass. But modern Beats headphones have largely improved, with Beats president Luke Wood stating that the acquisition helped them get better at what they do (via TechRadar).

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce