You're tuned in to Roundtable.
I'm Steve Hatherly.
Today with Yushan and Feifei.
Coming up, ever feel like your headphones are listening to you more than you listen to them?
That might not be too far from the truth.
In China alone, nearly 60 million wireless headphones shipped in just six months.
But the real story isn't about volume.
It's about design, turning what was once an accessory into a seamless part of our day and our ears and our podcast listeners.
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And now Do you know that the headphones you put on every day, the ones you use to block out the world, are actually going through a bit of a makeover?
In China, that's exactly what's going on.
With a total shipment of nearly 60 million Bluetooth headphones in just the first half of 2025.
Headphones are no longer just about sound quality or noise cancellation.
The industry is moving from how does it sound to how does it fit in your life.
Comfort, safety, and everyday scenarios now matter more than perfect bass.
And that's why open ear and ear clip designs are taking off, turning headphones into something closer to human peripherals than phone accessories.
It's kind of an interesting change in the market, because that's exactly what we used to look for, Yushin.
We used to look for noise cancellation and how loud can I make the bass?
How does the bass sound with this hip-hop track?
Things like that.
Exactly.
And one thing is that, have you realized that we now discuss...
We discussed Bluetooth headphones.
Now the wired ones are becoming the old school, nostalgic, retro ones.
Becoming cool again.
So the latest tracking data from International Data Corporation is showing that China shipped around 60 million Bluetooth headphones in the first half of 2025.
That's up 7.5% year on year.
And that is signaling a clear market rebound.
And some brands like Xiaomi and Huawei is leading the market share.
But more interesting is that this comeback isn't driven by better sound quality or stronger noise cancellation, as you said.
It's driven by a mindset shift.
And brands have finally realize, or just they have realized that the kind of scenarios a lot of users they're they're like focusing on is just not does this sound good, but in what situation are you wearing it?
Um, a lot of these companies and brands are realizing that not all of the users are these hardcore headphone fans that really, really focusing on that tiny difference on sound, the audio files yeah yeah, exactly.
And also when you think about for i think before, when you, when you think about headphones or earbuds, you think about noise cancellation, you know how well you can block out the whole world and just enjoy yourself, immerse yourself in the audio that you're playing.
But now I think, with more people just having something in their ears and moving around, there are more demands when it comes to I want also to be able to interact with the world while I'm also wearing those I don't know wearables or wireless wearables.
And that makes it very popular this year to see that Open ear and ear clip designs of these headphones are starting to take off among consumers.
It's also about, for example, in commuting when you have those open ear or ear clip headphones, you are still able to keep up with what's happening around you, or even, for example, on a business trip alone.
And it's also very important to be mindful of the surroundings.
So the designs then are changing because people's expectations are changing.
What they want from their earphones is changing.
A lot of people on the internet are saying that I'm just... I have a pair of wooden ear.
That means that I can just not tell the difference of different sound.
I just want something that can sound.
Any sound is okay.
So whatever that sound quality is, I just...
Now they have the needs of being safe when they're using headphones, maybe when commute on the road.
So when they're driving or riding a bike, I want to know what is happening around me.
And then that kind of design is really helpful for them.
Yeah.
And also for a lot of other brands with the AI technologies in hand.
They are also trying to incorporating AI technologies, you know, to monitoring health or translation features within these earbuds and headphone products.
And I think it's still quite niche on the market right now.
Because I'm not sure, because there are a lot of also discussions surrounding if you are going to incorporating AI technologies.
There will be questions when it comes to batteries or heat that's coming out from these devices.
And that's a question.
But I think that's another direction for other brands that are trying to test.
For a long time, the design was about fitting in your ear, the in-ear buds.
One of the selling points for earbuds would be how comfortable they are, how easily or how well they fit into your ear hole.
Is that the word for that?
Or like if you're exercising or running, like, oh, these things won't fall out.
But now and this is kind of surprising to me the design has gone almost all the way outside the ear.
So almost to the point that it doesn't even look like headphones anymore.
I think it is showing the result that people are not satisfied still with, even though you put a lot of effort in designing and making these comfortable, but still people don't like these in-ear designs and they just want these things to clip on your ear and they feel nothing.
So that is also another thing that these kind of headphones can be really really popular when people are really really thinking about whether it can be comfortable or not.
And especially when, I think over the past few years, we have been hearing reports coming from medical institutions or doctors saying that if you put on those in-ear buds it will impair your hearings on some level.
And now people are more aware of that.
And when it comes to open ear or the ear plug. clip design it sounds more a lot safer and a lot healthier yeah the ear clip um headphones which you know i and i'm i'm a headphone lover i've been a headphone lover for a long long time i used to have a collection as a matter of fact yeah because they come in so many different shapes and sizes and some are big and cumbersome and and they look like DJ headphones.
And then some of them get so small, you can barely even tell what they are.
But the ear clip ones, I was not familiar with.
If you're not familiar, it's exactly how they're named, ear clip.
It looks like an earring.
Yeah.
Kind of.
So they sit, you clip them onto your ear and then the speaker sits inside your ear, but it's not really visible to other people.
And even with that design, the music or whatever you're listening to is available only to you, unless you happen to be in a really you know low level quiet place or maybe have it up too loud.
Yeah.
And also, you know, another interesting trend is a lot of brands are trying to make this ear plug, their ear clip headphones to be very trendy and fashionable.
They're incorporating diamond designs or different colors, or even cooperating with those IP merchandise.
And you can buy your own as part of the goods, maybe goods economy, as we discussed.
You can go to a good store and buy some clip-on earphones with your favorite comic character or something.
Or a badge tacked on your ear.
Yeah, I mean, whatever works, right?
Those earclip headphones I don't know if you mentioned it or not almost 50 of the market in terms of sales.
Those are super, super, super popular.
What about the translation ones?
They call these ear side assistants, right?
Where we're now seeing earphones or headphones designed as tools for things.
And it's kind of expanding, I suppose, the market, because now it's not just music or podcasts or whatever that you're listening to.
They're being used in business scenarios or they're being used for multilingual communication, like if you're on vacation, traveling or something like that, rather than just entertainment.
The translation earbuds are pretty impressive.
Some of them are also focusing on these productivity features like call recording, multi-role transcription and AI-generated meeting summaries.
Even like earbuds, like Apple's airpods, are integrating these kind of translation features through system level soft software.
So um yeah, they are trying to add more software features into their earphones and then making it maybe like another tool when you are using, because when we're traveling, maybe abroad, you may need a translator and these kind of headphones can just translate it in real time.
Amazing yeah, But the thing is that still a lot of these headphones they failed to make it really really popular because one thing, the battery life is not really really as good as you can use that feature for a whole day.
And maybe if you need to wear them for a whole day, it cannot be as comfortable.
That's also another aspect.
Make them clip-on if you can.
Yeah, that can be the thing, but i think one of the also reason is because the scenarios that people can use is either in business scenarios or, you know, um in in in.
Well, when it comes to travel, i think what's really popular right now is that people are relying on their phones, certain apps that they install on their phones.
Maybe some brands can cooperating with i know some apps and so that they can have real-time translation in their earbuds.
But it's just very difficult to imagine I need to buy a new set of earbuds just because I booked a trip to this foreign country.
So I think when it comes to, for example, some of the earplugs design that's really popular in, for example, sports or leisure or safe learning, safe listening where you're commuting, it sounds just apply to a wider, bigger demographic.
When it compares to translation functions yeah, some of them some some of them, i suppose are very niche, aren't they?
But i think for a company it's okay to have that in your product line, even if it's not your number one seller.
And earphone companies will often do this, right?
They'll have many, many different designs, and they can have some that are designed for exercising and others that are designed for meetings.
And they even have some that are designed for learning and for the elderly too.
There are learning headphones.
These are designed for students to assist with listening training or oral correction, and then automatically summarize classroom highlights.
How would you feel about that if you were a teacher?
That really depends how it rolls out in practice.
I would say um for well.
I when i was studying english in college.
We need i think we definitely need some sort of this learning headphones, because we need to learn.
We practice listening a lot in our courses, But I'm not sure when it comes to, for example, smaller children.
That also, I think one of the concerns would be when it comes to health, to their hearing abilities and capabilities and how safe these headphones are designed to.
But as you said, Steve, it's a very niche market right now.
I think it's for a lot of brands.
They're just testing the waters and to see which path really leads to.
Or these are just the kind of a bonus feature that they are offering you, because that's still depending on how you're going to use them.
Because back then, if you want to listen to these recordings or English recordings and try to correct your pronunciation, you can always listen to a, let's say, mp3 or something like that.
Yeah, that's very true.
And if, for students who doesn't want to learn or study, they will just use their headphones yeah, and not pay attention?
Yeah, exactly.
Um, i really love this product design the, the hearing aid functions that we can get in certain earbuds now and it's already out, right?
Um, certain brands have clinical grade hearing aid features um built in to them for mild to moderate hearing loss, which is fantastic.
There's also an assist feature that enhances the clarity of music and video and calls, if you happen to be a little hard of hearing.
And then newer models are being pushed to the forefront to track physical health metrics as the users of those earphones become more health conscious.
Is this the equivalent?
I was thinking about this.
Is this the equivalent of having your health monitors on your smartwatches too?
Is this just kind of a different location where we can get the information?
In some way, yes.
They're putting these health monitoring chips or sensors on these earphones because, think about it, it is also like really, really close to your skin and um, your ear can actually reflect some very, very authentic and um, like real-time data that you can offer.
Do you remember when you have like a thermal um test that that can test your tempered body temperature, you put in your ear right, and some of these earphones also has that feature to test your temperature, body temperature.
So putting these like heartbeat monitoring sensor and then everything.
It is the way that a lot of these companies trying to add another feature and making people trying to buy.
And yeah, we are having that kind of bonus.
I know what you mean.
It just feels like we're moving the information from our wrist to our ear, which doesn't seem that impressive to me.
Now, we've talked all about this topic without even mentioning AI.
So I'm curious, Is AI going to find its way into the earphone market the same way?
Because with smartphones, obviously it did.
With computers, obviously it did.
Is it not going to happen with earphones or headphones?
Well, right now, up till now, I think AI headphones is one of the areas that AI has not been able to really quote.
Unquote go viral.
In the same way as it did in smartphones or PCs.
I think, as you should mention, battery can be one of the concerns, and also thermal and weight issues because, when it comes to, you need AI to process a lot of information that generates heat, and it's very difficult to imagine to have that on your ears.
Yeah, the hardware.
Yeah, exactly.
Too heavy, probably too uncomfortable for long-term wear.
And also when it comes to, unlike smartphones or PCs, which are sort of the independent devices that can run on their own.
Headphones or earbuds always need to rely on some of other devices.
Oh, like an app in your smartphone?
Yeah, because when it comes, for example Bluetooth, you need a Bluetooth to connect to your phone so that you can enjoy the music or podcasts.
But when it comes to these AI features in headphones or earbuds is still you need to rely on some sort of an app or cloud or smartphone.
So that sort of navigate negates the ai function that these earbuds are offering, because your phone's already offering these functions and services powered by ai.
So that's, i think, one of the reasons why ai is not able to find the path to sort of infiltrate into the earbuds industry.
Yeah.
There was a Chinese tech company that put a camera on the earbuds.
Did you see this?
They put a camera on the in earbuds product to have AI gather visual information, like looking at the roads and reading the signs and the logos or whatever.
So it could provide multifunction services.
I don't know if that proved to be popular or necessary, or if the customers were saying, why do I need this?
Well, I think there's also water testing is a very water testing practice.
I think they're trying to see whether they can be part of tracking things like your heart rate or even pick up your emotional state by installing this or incorporating gestures as a way to give out orders.
So you don't have to actually touch the earbuds anymore.
Yeah, you can just wave it or whatever.
And when you have a pair of camera on your headphones.
The weight and also the batteries.
The comfortableness is another topic that we need to discuss.
Yeah, i mean you can get really fancy earphones now that don't even look like earphones anymore.
You can have them jeweled or whatever.
But, that being said, i'm still old school.
I want that volume, i want that bass.
You should.
That's my decider when i'm uh making a decision on on whether to buy them or not.
Anyway, fun topic for sure.
That'll do it for today's roundtable.
Thank you very much for sharing your time with us today.
For Yushan and Feifei, I'm Steve.
Have a good one, and please do join us again next time.
