Apple’s over-ear noise-canceling headphones: 5 things we’d like to see

Over-ear noise-canceling headphones from Apple are hits waiting to happen. They’re also merely the subject of a rumor, but it’s a rumor from the mouth of KGI securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who might as well be the Oracle of Delphi so far as these things are concerned. Last month Kuo predicted that we’d see these headphones sometimes in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year, in part because he believes they’d round out the fresh audio hardware lineup we’ve seen from Apple with the HomePod and AirPods.

There was skeptical rejoicing. After all, it’s already possible to get “Apple” noise-canceling headphones through the Beats brand, so why make a separate, competing set? But just as Apple transformed the struggling Beats Music brand into a 38-million-subscriber powerhouse, Apple could work its magic with its own set of “cans” and make the familiar feel fresh again. Here’s what we think it’ll take to realize that vision.

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