They have almost become fashionable. When it comes to AirPods and other Galaxy Buds, wired headphones hold their own. Robert Pattinson, Lily-Rose Depp, Bella Hadid or Kristen Stewart are always happy owners of these pieces of cable, tangled in the bottom of a bag or pocket.
Also on Instagram there is even an account, with more than 13,000 subscribers, that shows stars like Carla Bruni or Pharrell Williams using wired headphones with more or less recent photos.
Because no, wired headphones are not dead. Away from.
unbeatable price
Walking through the shelves of specialty stores, however, you can quickly get the impression that they are hidden, relegated to the background. But look at the figures: between January and the end of July 2023, two million wired headphones were sold on the French market compared to 2.2 million wireless headphones, according to data provided by GFK and transmitted by Fnac-Darty. . to Tech&Co.
Wired headphones “is not a market that is going to collapse,” says Auxane Hervé, headphone product manager at Fnac-Darty. “This product is always sought after for its practical side in avoiding battery failure or loss, or even in troubleshooting.”
Corded phones are even more sought after because phone manufacturers no longer offer them in their boxes.
But it is above all the price that attracts consumers: on average, wired headphones cost 15 euros compared to 80 euros for wireless ones.
In reality, the uses are not the same: for wireless headphones (true wireless), manufacturers rely on sound quality. “Customers are looking for two things: noise reduction. Today, brands have built this mechanism into most wireless headphones. Second, with the rise of remote work, customers also want the ability to connect to multiple devices Bluetooth, to easily switch from a computer to a phone,” explains Auxane Hervé.
The leader in the “true wireless” market is still Apple and its famous AirPods, marketed since 2016, with a 40% market share, compared to 66% in 2020. Samsung, JBL, Sony and then Bose follow.
Wireless increasingly accessible…
We still see a transfer of some customers to wireless headphones when they went more to wired headphones. This is explained by the marketing of low-cost wireless headphones, with an entry level of 29 to 50 euros.
This is all the more true as the new smartphones no longer necessarily have a jack to connect headphones. Finally, it is also interesting for brands: wireless headphones represent 182 million euros of total turnover compared to 30 million euros for wired headphones. Therefore, manufacturers are adapting their production strategy.
…and very high-end cabling
However, some brands continue to bet on wired headphones to offer quality products, but at much higher prices, such as the Sennheiser IE 600 headphones sold at 799 euros.
On the helmet side, the trend is also increasing. Since the resumption of travel, customers have been looking for products that isolate more noise and are more comfortable. With inflation, the Fnac-Darty group is also experiencing a boom in sales of reconditioned helmets, “a triple-digit growth”, specifies the product manager.
Source: BFM TV
