Headphones market

figure 1, Red Beats By Dr.Dre.

With the constantly growing success of portable devices such as smartphones and tables boots are more and more acceptable by customers today, the selling of associated earphones cannot satisfy customers any more. indeed, more people started to buy a new individual headphone due to they were disappointed by the voice-quality issue, the ergonomics issue and sustainbility issue by the earphone given with their smartphones or tablets.

"The global headphones market is expected to increase of 20% in 2012 to reach $6 billion in value (versus $5 billion in 2011). With an increase in sales from 228 million units in 2011 to 260 million units in 2012, this market will certainly keep growing until 2016 with a possible growth to 330 million unit" (n. d.)

In french headphone market, "nowadays, in spite of the economic crisis, the headphones market keep growing with record sales : 9.5 million headphones sold in France in 2011 for a global turnover of 286 million euros ! And in 2012, the turnover of the first trimester is already 18% than the one for 2011 (with already 2.3 million headphones sold). This increase is mostly due to the consumer appetite for high-end headphones (over 200 euros)" (n. d.)

figure 2, market positioning (People, 2012).

Customers are changing to be nitpick, when they buy a new headphone, they would consider battery autonomy, the quality of bass, medium and highs of voice, the pressure and weight of ear, the convenience to carry on, and the noise cancellation by it. It is unblamable because customers deverse the satisfacations after everytime they paid more than hundreds dollars or euros to buy a individual music accessories. 

Facing to the increasing various headphones demands by customers, more and more company has been investigated and launched new brand headphones foucing on them. BEATS headphone, BOSE headphone and SHURE are the most characteristic ones by all of them. 

Beats, the most popular headphones brand on the market currently, which established in 2006 by Dr.Dre, who is the legendary artist, hip-hop, rap musician and producer. Beats has been on the market over 7 years and the sales are still growing up. "According to company spokesman Rick Jennings, 2010 profits were triple those from 2009. One of the most significant moves by Beats was their inclusion in Apple stores and in the largest US electronics retailer Best Buy" (n. d.).

"Beats captured 53 percent of the $1 billion headphone market in 2011, according to market researcher NPD Group, despite the fact that it is the highest priced ($210-$500 or N32 000 –N75 000) among most of the consumer headphones notably the 2 rivals earlier mentioned. Dr. Dre and Mr. Iovine sold 51 per cent of their Beats Electronics company to the Taiwanese technology company HTC for a whopping $309m ($110m entered the Dr.’s pocket)" (Sanburn, 2013).

video 1, Co-branding HTC/Beats

 

Bose, the expert headphone on noise-cancellation, which established in 1964 by Amar Bose. Also, it is the most professional headphone on the market, which has 12 different headphones sold, price between £89.5 and  £299.5.

figure 3, Bose Owner’s Guides for Headphones and Headsets. Retrieved November 15, 2009.

"According to a recent NPD study, Beats controls over 60 percent of the premium headphones market while Bose controls less than 25 percent. Arguably, all the money spent on marketing these headphones to a mass audience is passed along to the consumer in the price of the headphones. Apple recently purchased Beats for approximately $3 billion and heavily integrated the line of Beats products into the Apple Store" (Flacy, 2014).


Shure, a audio products corporation with more than 80 years history, which founded in United Stated in 1925 by Sidney Shure. It already became the most popular headphone brand in U.S.A., "The Consumer Electronics Association estimated that 79 million headphones were sold in 2012 with an expected increase of 10% in 2013. Most of that growth was expected to occur in the over $100 category"(DaProza, 2014).

 

figure 4,SE112 Sound Isolating Earphones,Shure.(2014).

"Now, Shure has a new earphone in the SE Model Series: SE112 at $49. What we wanted to know was what we could expect from the bargain-priced model. Or any entry-level pair"(DaProza, 2014). The SE112 is also the best-seller headphone in this price range.

"That adaptability is typical for Shure, founded 81 years ago as a build-your-own radio kit company. Today annual revenues are an estimated $350 million. The private company claims a 60% share of the U.S. microphone market — 45% worldwide"(Hendershot, 2006).

Those three characteristic headphones are diffrent- different style, different features and even different target markets.


























Sources:

People, (2012, May 25). Just Another Headphone? Retrieved from http://www.peoplepeople.se/just-another-headphone/

Sanburn, J. (2013, Jan 16). How Dr. Dre Made $300 Headphones a Must-Have Accessory. TIME. Retrieved from http://business.time.com/2013/01/16/how-dr-dre-made-300-headphones-a-must-have-accessory/

Flacy, M. (2014, Oct 5).  Beats, Bose battle over brand exposure on NFL broadcasts. Retrieved from http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/beats-bose-battle-brand-exposure-nfl-broadcasts/

Hendershot, S. (2006, Oct, 9). How Shure became the word. Retrieved from http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20061007/ISSUE02/100026643/how-shure-became-the-word