Dr Dre's new headphones, Studio Wireless, aren't too much different than his previous, ultra popular version, besides their one major difference: wireless capability. Bluetooth technology enables a 30-foot leash between you and your music device at all times during its 12 hours of wireless battery life. Even more convenient, the noise-cancelling head phones allow users to change songs, answer calls, and adjust the volume without ever having to reach for their phones and/or iPods; all that and more can be done from the headphones, according to beatsbydre.
The description on Dre's website, beatsbydre.com, stands by the design that made its non-wireless versions some of the most popular on the market, and "forced an entire industry to rethink its pocket-protector style and bring on the phunk," according to Forbes' "List of the Hest Headphones of 2013."
"It's the same headphone, with Adaptive Noise Cancellation (ANC), a rechargeable battery, and re-engineered sound," the Beats website assures its customers, "just with no wires."
Of the sound quality -- one minor criticism of previous Beats Studio headphones ("they don't have the qualities that separate a good £100 headphone from a good £270 one," according to one European reviewer, whose region of the world likely has higher standards for head phones anyway) -- beatsbydre writes "how music could sound if the artist could play it back for you in person." Likely, the sound quality is largely the same as previous editions.
Other than tout their new wireless capabilities, it remains to be seen if and how Dre will employ creative and daring marketing schemes, such as distributing free headphones to athletes before the 2012 Olympics. That borderline legal maneuver (the rules between athletes and endorsements are strict during the Olympics) added to Beats' worldwide reputation and increased sales by 42 percent, according to Brand Interest. In another subtle marketing play that same year, the headphone company, started in 2008, announced the opening of a new retail store almost solely through social media..
The wireless versions may not need a marketing strategy; they are currently sold out on the beatsbydre website at $380 per unit.
