Apple Over-Ear
Apple Over-Ear was a concept render from late 2016, imagining what Apple-branded over-ear headphones might look like under the company's own design language. At the time, Apple owned Beats but hadn't released anything under the Apple name in the audio category. AirPods had just been announced but hadn't shipped.
In late 2016, Apple's relationship with audio hardware was changing fast. The iPhone 7 had just shipped without a headphone jack, which forced every iPhone user to either use Lightning headphones or go wireless. AirPods were announced in September but delayed — they didn't ship until December. Beats headphones were now an Apple product but still carried a different design identity.
The concept tried to work out what Apple's version of premium over-ear headphones would look like if designed from scratch — not a Beats product rebadged, but something that shared the design language of the Watch and the MacBook. Aluminum ear cups, a minimal headband, a Digital Crown for volume. That last part was speculative but felt logical: the Watch had established it as a tactile control idiom, and headphones have volume.
On the materials
The challenge in 2016 was figuring out how Apple would handle the headband. Beats used plastic and foam. Apple's own products used aluminum and glass almost everywhere. A rigid aluminum headband on over-ear headphones is uncomfortable without padding, but padding interrupts the materials story. The render used a mesh fabric insert — which turned out to be exactly what Apple did when AirPods Max shipped in December 2020, four years later.
Covered by
- 9to5Mac
- MacRumors
- Cult of Mac