Roger Fingas
Apple has joined with French fashion house Balmain on special editions of its Beats Studio Wireless and Powerbeats3 headphones, echoing marketing tactics adopted with some other Apple wearables, like the Apple Watch.
In both cases the headphones use a unique "Safari" color with metallic gold accents, and conspicuous Balmain branding. For carrying them around, buyers get a matching suede case featuring a Balmain plaque and a coin zipper.
To sell them the two companies have employed model Kylie Jenner, who is appearing in photos and video, including a post on her Instagram feed.
The Balmain Studio Wireless headphones cost $599.95, well above the standard $379.95. That amount is however as much as Alexander Wang's "Dove Gray" color.
The gap is much smaller with the Powerbeats3, as the Balmain version is $249.95 versus the regular product's $199.95.
Apple has increasingly tried to market its products as fashion accessories. Perhaps the most famous example is the first-generation Apple Watch Edition, which used real gold and cost upwards of $10,000. The most fashion consciously fashion Series 2 Watch is the Hermes, which tops out at $1,499.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
Andrew O'Hara
William Gallagher
8 Comments
Hello Apple, less fashion and much better sound quality should be the priority. Returned a set of Beats and replaced with Jaybirds - which provide a vastly superior sound.
Hey Ed, I could not agree with more....Fashion has never helped things sound better...it takes actually engineering for that to happen...
Since when did Beats care about sound quality?
UG-LEE!!!