China's $99 Noise Cancelling Headphones Exposed Bose's $3.2B Empire

China’s $99 noise cancelling headphones exposed Bose’s $3.2 billion empire. Bose spent 22 years and $50 million inventing active noise cancelling (ANC), and now cheap Chinese headphones from Anker Soundcore deliver the same noise cancellation for $99. In this documentary we explain how noise cancelling headphones work, why Bose is losing to budget ANC headphones, and how China’s chip industry broke the Bose noise cancelling monopoly.

We cover the Bose vs Beats patent lawsuit of 2014, Amar Bose’s 1978 flight that inspired the Bose QuietComfort, and Bestechnic, the Shanghai Bluetooth chip maker that put hybrid noise cancellation on a single chip sold to Samsung, Sony, JBL, Xiaomi and Huawei. You’ll see how Anker and Soundcore grew from Amazon sellers into a 30 billion yuan business while Bose closed 119 stores and cut its workforce from 9,000 to 5,200.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra vs Soundcore Space One Pro, Bose vs Sony WH-1000XM6, cheap vs expensive noise cancelling headphones: is the Bose premium still worth $350 more? If you follow Chinese technology, China vs USA tech competition, the headphone industry, or the best budget noise cancelling headphones, this video is for you. Subscribe to CG Tech for more Chinese tech documentaries.

0:00 $99 headphones vs a $3.2B empire
0:41 How noise cancelling actually works
1:45 Bose vs Beats: the 2014 patent war
3:34 A Shanghai chip company is born
3:48 Amar Bose’s 22-year, $50M invention
6:00 How Bose guarded its empire
7:28 2020: Bose closes 119 stores
8:42 Layoffs: 9,000 down to 5,200
9:57 The chip that put ANC in everything
13:09 Why patents can’t stop a chip
13:49 Anker & Soundcore’s rise
16:39 Bose moves upmarket
17:36 Would you still pay $350 more?

#NoiseCancelling #Headphones #Bose #Soundcore #ChinaTech