The report, based on a survey of 4000 smartphone users in the UK and US, reveals that 53% of participants either own or would purchase a pair of true wireless earbuds – earphones without any wires whatsoever, such as the Apple Airpods, Onkyo W800BTs and Motorola Verve Ones+.
Nearly 67% of the US population surveyed (and just under half of the UK sample) would also be interested in a wireless headset that could connect to the internet and provide a voice assistant, in the same vein as the Airpods, which have Siri buil-in. Rumour has it that Google is already working on AirPod-style Assistant-powered headphones.
The report also reveals that despite the desire for innovation, audio performance remains key, with 78% ranking sound quality as the top priority when it comes to choosing a pair of wireless headphones. That's good news in our book.
The bottom line: in the perhaps not-too-distant future, we’ll probably be asking our earbuds to switch playlists and order pizza. Indeed, whether it's in five or 50 years, wired headphones will probably become a thing of the past. But among all of the new and exciting user experience innovations, it's good to see we're all in agreement that sound quality must come first.
