Bragi debuts new wireless earbuds with 6 hour battery called The Headphone, to retail for $149 but available for pre-order today for $119
They're called ‘The Headphone’ and cost half the Dash's $300 price tag — One of the first companies to venture into the world of making truly wireless earbuds …
Context & Ripple Effects
Bragi was one of the first companies to ship truly wireless earbuds, but the first generation — its own $300 Dash and Earin's rival buds — drew criticism for Bluetooth connectivity problems and poor sound quality. The Headphone is Bragi's answer: a stripped-down bud at $149 ($119 on pre-order today), deliberately priced at half the Dash to reach buyers the flagship scared off.
The timing is tight. Two days after this debut, Apple entered the same category with $159 AirPods offering 5 hours of battery and a charging case, and Bragi's later lineup pushed upmarket instead — a $329 Dash Pro and a $499 custom-fit version with real-time translation added to its OS.
First-order effects
- Bragi halves its own entry price, trading the Dash's feature load for volume, and locks in early demand with a $119 pre-order window before retail hits $149.
- Buyers who were burned by first-generation wireless earbuds get a sub-$150 option from the category's pioneer, directly ahead of Apple's October AirPods launch.
Second-order effects
- Apple's arrival at $159 two days later squeezes the mid-tier from above, forcing Bragi to differentiate its premium Dash line through software — the translation-capable OS update that accompanied the Dash Pro and custom-fit models.
- Beats' eventual $250 Powerbeats Pro, built on Apple's H1 chip with 9-hour battery life, shows how quickly platform owners could out-spec independent hardware makers on battery and integration.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, truly wireless earbuds shift from a startup-led niche to a smartphone-platform accessory market where chip-level integration decides winners — consistent with Bragi ultimately selling its product business in March 2019 while keeping IP licensing.
- Hardware-first pioneers in nascent device categories face a structural choice between scaling manufacturing against platform giants or converting early engineering into licensed IP.
The trend: Truly wireless earbuds are migrating from boutique-hardware pioneers toward smartphone-platform ecosystems, pushing first movers like Bragi from devices into IP licensing.