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Bose headphones and speakers no longer available from Apple Online Store

Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine at Code Conference via Re/code

It was reported last week that Apple would soon stop selling Bose headphones and speakers at its Apple Store locations. Previously, a variety of Bose headphones and speakers were demoed at each Apple Store location and available for purchase there and online. All Bose speakers and headphones have since been completely removed from sale through the Apple Online Store and several Apple Retail Store locations we’ve contacted have confirmed Bose inventory is no longer available.

At the time of the report, it was suspected that the ongoing patent dispute between Bose and Beats Electronics was likely the reason for Apple removing Bose products from its retail stores; shortly after Apple announced it had acquired Beats Electronics, Bose filed a patent claim against Beats citing improper use of its noise-cancellation technology.

It was announced later that day, however, that the two companies had settled out of court and the case has since been dismissed. Despite that particular dispute being resolved out of court, conflict between the two companies has still existed.

Because the NFL is sponsored in part by Bose, competing headphone brands including the popular Beats cannot be allowed on camera during NFL-related events. This has led to several NFL players being disciplined for wearing Beats headphones during NFL events including 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick being fined $10,000 for sporting Beats headphones during a press conference.

Beats co-founder and Apple employee Jimmy Iovine has pointed out that the Beats-ban has given the brand its fair share of free coverage.

It’s possible, though, that Apple is simply removing a similarly priced competitor from its retail channels to focus on promoting Beats now that it owns the brand.

Apple does still sell other competing headphone brands including Bowers & Wilkins, Urbanears, RHA, Sennheiser, and more suggesting the Bose move was more targeted.

It has also been reported that Apple will soon remove products from the company Fitbit, which haven’t tet embraced Apple’s HealthKit platform, from its retail channels as it prepares to introduce the Apple Watch in early 2015, although that product and other fitness tracking devices are still available currently.

Top image via Re/code 

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Comments

  1. hmurchison - 9 years ago

    “No Highs no Lows” must be Bose

    • thejuanald - 9 years ago

      Nothing but lows and incredibly poor quality sound, must be Beats.

    • Bob Smogango - 9 years ago

      No,it’s B.O.S.E. Better Off w/ Something Else…….. :-)

    • luxlamf - 9 years ago

      I have had both brands and both are terrible. I still have my Apple HiFi i bought in 2007 and it blows them both away…

  2. Such a long winded story to report this? It’s rather simple. Apple is responding directly to moves against them by these manufacturers. Bose knew fully well how that contract with the NFL would play out.

    Fit Bit isn’t just late to adopt Health Kit, they went on record saying they don’t have any plans to do so. IMO, that’s a big slam against the platform that pretty much put their products on the map. It’s an easy choice to make more room on Apple’s shelves for products from others that will better compliment Apple’s own products.

  3. anon - 9 years ago

    After aquiring Beats, it is now a conflict of interest to sell Bose as they are a direct competitor.

    • proudappleuser - 9 years ago

      What about Alpine, B&O, B&W, sennheiser, ect…

      Those are all still available.

      • drhalftone - 9 years ago

        Beats accounts for about 60% of sales, Bose for 22% of sales, all others account for 17%. Those manufacturers are a pittance compared to Bose and Beats.

      • webzpinner - 9 years ago

        Let’s go with your %’s… Beats 60, Bose 22, everyone else 17… Why would apple cut themselves off of making that money? 22% is NOT a pittance. Now they just lost 22% of their business. If you think for a second a Bose customer will settle for beats you don’t know a thing about Bose marketing. I’ve worked sales in audio. Mid to high end audio. I’ve had customers pick Bose over Martin Logan… Not coz of price or size, but name and sound quality to their ears. People hear what they want, and if their brain tells them Bose is the best, they will hear Bose as the best regardless.

        Beats MIGHT get 1 or 2 customers out of 100 of that 22% you mentioned… If they are younger crowd… Most Bose customers are women (any age) or men 40+.

  4. Bob Smogango - 9 years ago

    Actually, the whole thing is kind of immature if you really want to analyze this whole thing. I would have liked it if Apple didn’t buy Beats, i don’t think they really needed to. Here are the reasons.

    1. We don’t know if Beats sold their $1.5 Billion last year as a means to dump product to raise their value of the company knowing they were going to try to sell it to Apple.
    2. Beats Music isn’t that great and i honestly don’t think Apple is going to make much in the way of profits from it.
    3. The actual quality of Beats products isn’t that great. They are stylish for a teenager, but for the more mature consumer, they are verging on cheap looking.
    4. Bose has been around a long time and obviously spends $$ on marketing and to not carry the products means that people will just simply go elsewhere for the products.
    5. Apple Stores are ignoring a lot of other brands that make some nice alternatives or the higher end of the market. AKG, Sennheiser, Beyer, Audeze, Audio Technica, HiFi Man, and probably another dozen or more other headphone mfg that make some nice products.

    It would be interesting to see an independent audio retail chain build audio stores that looked like an Apple Store, catered to the computer/mobile audio listener where they carried the REAL audio products from low to high end so they could cater to the brands not carried by Apple. They could carry all kinds of products that Apple simply doesn’t carry. I wonder how successful they would be if they catered to the typical computer/mobile device customer that wanted to see what’s REALLY on the market. Beats and Bose aren’t the only companies making headphones and there is simply a whole lot of other products that might have better sound quality.

    • PMZanetti - 9 years ago

      No

    • smigit - 9 years ago

      There are retailers that sell a wide range of headphone brands. As it is, Apple isn’t an audio store and any accessories they do sell are there to complement their own products. They aren’t going to stock 15 brands of headphones because it takes away a large amount of their floor space for products that Apple themselves now have a competing range in.

      It doesn’t seem that immature to me. There a Bose store in my local city and I’d never expect them to stock Beats headphones. Apple’s probably happy to offer consumers a small range of choice to keep them happy, but they probably don’t want to give a leg up to their largest competitor either without a good reason for supporting them. When Apple supports a competitor such as putting software on Microsofts Windows, there’s still a lock in to an Apple ecosystem occurring which may drive further sales Apples way down the line. There’s really not much long term kick back for Apple if they stock Bose headphones other than the initial sales profit. Additionally headphones unlike many other devices don’t even help lock consumers into the Apple ecosystem. It’s not like theres a dock connector or iOS App to help bind people to the Apple products.

    • The reason they bought Beats is incredibly simple. Samsung wanted to be “cool” and made an offer to buy Beats. Lovine told Cook. Apple made a counter offer they simply could not refuse. Apple doesn’t want Beats, but they don’t want Samsung to have Beats neither. Nothing more to it.

  5. courtsidesuites - 9 years ago

    Bose is far superior to Beats which is all glitz and nothing more. That’s why they’re a threat to Beats, now owned by Apple, and that’s why Apple gave them the Axe.

  6. Charles Borner - 9 years ago

    Hi! We’re removing crappy product from our stores.
    We’re replacing it with another, wholly owned and loyal subsidiary’s crappy product!

  7. Akshay Kalaria - 9 years ago

    it’s not adjustable

  8. Landy (@Soydepr) - 9 years ago

    beats are not better than bose…………………….period

    • freediverx - 9 years ago

      They both suck but at least Beats have some style. Bose headphones look like something sold at Radio Shack.

  9. Timothy Kist (@zboarda) - 9 years ago

    which haven’t (tet -> yet)

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.