34.4% of all headphones in the US are AirPods.
15.3% are Beats by Dre.

Both owned by Apple, which gives them a 49.7% market share for US headphones.

Beats which Apple bought in 2014 for 3 billion dollars, which today nearly a decade later is still the biggest purchase the company ever made.

AirPods, which have sold over 100 million units since launch in 2016 and in 2020 alone made Apple 23 billion dollars.

Despite literal hundreds of companies making headphones and thousands on the market, Apple jumped in and now has half the US market.

The only question though is, why the AirPod Max?

AIrPod Max was released December 15th of 2020, where it’s been called a lukewarm product for Apple, selling under 1 million units in 2021.

The product is very clearly just a slightly modified and repackaged version of Beats, but this time saying “AirPod Max” instead.

I looked at the products and checked some electronics review sites to find they were almost exactly the same.

Speaker quality-Identical
Battery life-Almost the same
Software support-The same

Most sites gave AirPod Max a slight edge, but said the reason for that was they are a newer product, so have some natural advantages.

Even the price wasn’t a huge change.

AirPod Max’s sell for around $500, which on surface is higher over Beats averaging $200, but Beats also have way more models and more premium versions that can hit the $400 mark and be comparable.

This just really begs the question of what the difference actually is and it feels like the big example is branding.

Example

Coke vs Pepsi

• Coca Cola had the companies first Tv commercial in 1950 on Thanksgiving Day, where it had classical music and presented Coke as a wholesome and family product.

• Pepsi in comparison always catered to pop culture, where the first ad campaign was in 1909 hiring racer Barney Oldfield to represent the product. The first commercial was also in the 50s and had a jingly, showing people dancing and having fun with Pepsi.

This goes almost for every brand.

Disney v Warner Bros

• Disney kept the character of Mickey Mouse exceptionally safe and focused almost exclusively on family content for decades.

• Warner positioned Bugs Bunny as a character more for older kids and adults, having more advanced humor.

Hershey’s vs Mars

• Hershey focused on the ad campaign for years “The Great American Hershey Bar” and most ads show consumers engaging in all American experiences with products.

• Mars focused on edgier ads, with an example being the M&M’s ad, clearly designed to have a little more edge.

Nintendo v Sega.

• Nintendo in the 1990s had a rule that no blood can be in games, so for fighting games, they opted to only allow blood to be green.

• Sega wanted to be an edgier product, marketing that it had red blood and also making Sonic a character for older kids over Mario.

This applies to Beats vs AirPod Max, even though they are both owned by Apple.

Beats is still branded with Dr Dre and does create an image more centered on rap, younger audiences and it could alienate some people.

AirPod Max has a feeling to it, where despite being more or less the same product, buying them doesn’t feel like an endorsement of Dr Dre and rap, which could appeal to some customers.

So, was this a good idea for Apple?

AirPod Max hasn’t sold that well since release, where they are still nothing compared to regular AirPods or Beats, but the idea seems almost like an insurance policy on Dr Dre’s image or the case Beats are more of a style that could go out.

AirPod Max probably never become as big for Apple as the other headphones, but cater to that subset of consumers which want bigger headphones and just don’t recognize with the brand Beats.