How Bose compete with AirPods — and why it’s in more cars than ever, with CEO Lila Snyder

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Bose is one of the most recognizable audio brands in the world: it was famous for the Wave radio in the 80s, it invented noise cancellation, you can see its logo on NFL sidelines every Sunday, and of course there are the popular consumer products like the QuietComfort headphones that reviewers like Chris Welch here at The Verge rate as some of the best in the game. Bose is in tons of cars as well: audio systems in GM, Honda, Hyundai, Porsche, and more are developed and tuned by Bose.

Bose was founded in 1964 by Dr. Amar Bose, who donated a majority of the shares of the company to MIT, where he was a professor. That means to this day, Bose is a private company with no pressure to go public. However, Bose still has to compete against big tech in talent, products, and compatibility.

So today I’m talking to Bose CEO Lila Snyder about Bose’s dependence on platform vendors like Apple and Google, how she thinks about standards like Bluetooth, and where she thinks she can compete and win against AirPods and other products that get preferential treatment on phones.

Links:

Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II review: noise cancellation domination

How Amar Bose used research to build better speakers

List of Bose shelf stereos

Hearing Aids | FDA

Digital signal processor

Functional organization

Bose names its first female CEO as wait continues for new products

Amar Bose ’51 makes stock donation to MIT

Meta announces huge job cuts affecting 11,000 employees

Amazon mass layoffs will reportedly ax 10,000 people this week

Elon Musk demands Twitter employees commit to ‘extremely hardcore’ culture or leave

The iPhone 7 has no headphone jack

Bluetooth Special Interest Group

Qualcomm Partners with Meta and Bose

Bose gets into hearing aid business with new FDA-cleared SoundControl hearing aids

Over-the-counter hearing aids could blur the line with headphones

New Bose-Lexie Hearing Aid to Enter the Over-the-Counter Market

Lexie Partners with Bose to Offer Lexie B1 Powered by Bose Hearing Aids

Bose Frames Tempo review: the specs to beat

Bose discontinues its niche Sport Open Earbuds

BMW starts selling heated seat subscriptions for $18 a month

Seven CEOs and one secretary of transportation on the future of cars

Why Amazon VP Steve Boom just made the entire music catalog free with Prime

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/23246668

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

It was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters and our Executive Director is Eleanor Donovan.

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