Amazon aims to take on Apple's AirPods with the $130 'Echo Buds'

[Polycount]

In brief: As we reported yesterday, Amazon was rumored to be developing its own alternative to Apple's popular AirPods earbuds. At the retail giant's hardware event today, this news was largely confirmed: the Echo Buds are a real thing, they start shipping next month, and they'll run you about $130.

With basic availability and pricing out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks. What benefits do the Echo Buds offer over the many alternatives on the market? According to Amazon, the key features are hands-free Alexa access, high-quality audio, IPX4 splash resistance, and Bose's Active Noise Reduction technology.

The Echo Buds will let you do pretty much everything you could with any other Echo device; smart speaker or otherwise. You can ask Alexa for directions to the nearest coffee shop, or get help with calling an Uber. You can also use the assistant to control music playback or place calls to friends and family. Again, this is all pretty standard Alexa stuff, and the Buds don't bring any new requests to the table.

However, Amazon promises that the device's microphone array (two outer, one inner) will allow Alexa to dampen ambient noise and accurately understand you under virtually any conditions. We'd have to test the Buds ourselves to say how true this statement is, but in theory, the assistant will be able to hear you even if you're in a noisy environment; such as on a bus or train.

Digging deeper into the Buds' audio chops, the devices will have two "premium, balanced armature drivers" in each earbud. These drivers, Amazon claims, are inspired by similar technology used by pros in the music industry. If you want to isolate the outside world and focus on your music or podcast, you can double tap on either Bud to turn on Active Noise Reduction. Double tapping again turns this functionality off in favor of "Passthrough Mode."

Given that the Echo Buds are completely wireless, decent battery life is critical. To that end, you should expect performance about on par with other in-ear wireless buds on the market, such as Apple AirPods -- much like the AirPods, the Buds can be used for up to five hours on a single charge. However, the Buds' included charging case can only store up to 20 hours of additional battery life, versus the AirPod case's 24.

As nice as the Buds sound, some of our readers may (understandably) be concerned about the privacy implications of having an Alexa-powered device in their ear at all times. To address these concerns, Amazon says the Buds are "designed to protect your privacy," and "built with multiple layers of privacy protection." For example, you can mute the Buds' mic using your phone's Alexa app or you can view, hear, and delete your voice recordings at any time.

If the Buds seem like your cup of tea, you can pre-order them now directly from Amazon -- doing so will net you a free 3-month Audible subscription. The first units will leave the company's warehouses on October 30, 2019.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82071-amazon-aims-take-apple-airpods-130-echo-buds.html

 

[p51d007]

Drop them down to 99.99 bucks, they won't keep them in stock.
It amazes me, that something that most likely costs 50 bucks or less to produce,
sell for what they do, and, people "eat them up". Well, with Apple, you kind of have to
use it, because they left out the EARPHONE JACK.
I don't see a lot of Apple users going for this though, unless Amazon sticks an Apple logo
on them LOL.

 

[VitalyT]

It amazes me, that something that most likely costs 50 bucks or less to produce, sell for what they do

What's really amazing is people's ignorance about the correlation between R&D expenses and manufacturing costs. If this product really did cost $50 to produce, the sell price would be above $300 for sure.

If you want to comprehend what insane margins look like, here're some examples:

• Print ink. The ones selling for $25 usually cost around 10c to manufacture.
• Pretty much all medicals sold in the US. Margins exceed x100 times

 

[Kibaruk]

It amazes me, that something that most likely costs 50 bucks or less to produce, sell for what they do

What's really amazing is people's ignorance about the correlation between R&D expenses and manufacturing costs. If this product really did cost $50 to produce, the sell price would be above $300 for sure.

If you want to comprehend what insane margins look like, here're some examples:

• Print ink. The ones selling for $25 usually cost around 10c to manufacture.
• Pretty much all medicals sold in the US. Margins exceed x100 times

For real, and marketing, storage, workers hours, what not... it's not just buying a bunch of components and they magically fuse together to create a good product.... yet every time there is an ifixit teardown or something similar people start talking malecowfeces real fast.

With that said, decent quality cheap alternatives are for around half the price, the microphones suck for calls though... I've tried a few and have been tempted to get the Apple ones because the call quality is amazing, I'm going to wait for this one for sure.

At least me, I like Alexa and it's been very convenient, not sure how it will work on the street, I don't see myself giving it commands on a crowded place lol but... interesting.

 

[mctommy]

It amazes me, that something that most likely costs 50 bucks or less to produce, sell for what they do

What's really amazing is people's ignorance about the correlation between R&D expenses and manufacturing costs. If this product really did cost $50 to produce, the sell price would be above $300 for sure.

If you want to comprehend what insane margins look like, here're some examples:

• Print ink. The ones selling for $25 usually cost around 10c to manufacture.
• Pretty much all medicals sold in the US. Margins exceed x100 times

For real, and marketing, storage, workers hours, what not... it's not just buying a bunch of components and they magically fuse together to create a good product.... yet every time there is an ifixit teardown or something similar people start talking malecowfeces real fast.

With that said, decent quality cheap alternatives are for around half the price, the microphones suck for calls though... I've tried a few and have been tempted to get the Apple ones because the call quality is amazing, I'm going to wait for this one for sure.

At least me, I like Alexa and it's been very convenient, not sure how it will work on the street, I don't see myself giving it commands on a crowded place lol but... interesting.

Most of the population do not understand the supply chain cost, packaging cost, and R&D cost of product.
Whether it be the supply chain cost of transporting your bottled water/pops, to the R&D and packaging cost of these products, it's a real cost to companies. Add in any overhead cost, staffing cost, support cost, the cost of items for small companies are through the roof.

I hate the look of the airpods but the sound actually surprised me... also no latency issue when watching video were the things that sold me over other wireless earbuds.

 

[Kibaruk]

I hate the look of the airpods but the sound actually surprised me... also no latency issue when watching video were the things that sold me over other wireless earbuds.

Are you talking about Amazon's earbuds?
Edit: Should've read airpods...

 

[mctommy]

Are you talking about Amazon's earbuds?
Edit: Should've read airpods...

yes... airpods. If airpods don't stay in your ear, then powerbeats pro but they are even more expensive than the airpods. FYI, I actually hate Beats headset in general... but I heard that the new powerbeats pro is good (it's using apple chipset).

 

[p51d007]

Most of the population do not understand the supply chain cost, packaging cost, and R&D cost of product.
Whether it be the supply chain cost of transporting your bottled water/pops, to the R&D and packaging cost of these products, it's a real cost to companies. Add in any overhead cost, staffing cost, support cost, the cost of items for small companies are through the roof.

I hate the look of the airpods but the sound actually surprised me... also no latency issue when watching video were the things that sold me over other wireless earbuds.

Yes, I understand marketing, R&D etc...but with "every other device looking (similar)", the markup, considering where electronics is made is HUGE. iPhones, for example, minus marketing etc...200-300 dollars per device for the top of the line, but "command" 1000+ dollars. Advertising, R&D doesn't eat all of that up....GREED does. Which is why you see most manufacturing of consumer electronics in communist/socialist/dictatorship h*ll holes.

 

[Kibaruk]

Yes, I understand marketing, R&D etc...but with "every other device looking (similar)", the markup, considering where electronics is made is HUGE. iPhones, for example, minus marketing etc...200-300 dollars per device for the top of the line, but "command" 1000+ dollars. Advertising, R&D doesn't eat all of that up....GREED does. Which is why you see most manufacturing of consumer electronics in communist/socialist/dictatorship h*ll holes.

Who do you think pays for the "genious" stores?

The trends seems to be bigger better custom cut screens = more expensive phones. Let's say the iPhone X when it came out, replacing the screen alone was $350. It's not about the actual hardware but the screens and the custom specialty cuts that are pushing the price upwards. They still need to develop a lot before they can actually just put them together.

So... no.