You gotta give it to Apple, the Cupertino-based company is full of innovators or at least fast working engineers. Apple appears to be staying well ahead of the curve in the wireless earbud market as they’ve recently filed a patent for a dual use AirPods charging case as a Bluetooth speaker, sources suggest.
Apple Stays Ahead of the Game, Files Patent for AirPods Charging Case as Bluetooth Speaker
I wonder if this brilliant idea has even crossed the brains of other strategy teams. Regardless, it crossed the minds of team members at Apple. The patent, filed as 9,949,015, states: A case for a wireless electronic listening device (e.g., a pair of wireless earbuds) is configured to house a pair of wireless earbuds and charge the earbuds when they are in the case. That would be the Apple AirPod charging case for anyone who needs a little direction. The case would then be “further configured to receive media received by the wireless earbuds and transmit the media to a non-wireless output device connected to the case. The case may further include its own wireless radio that can wirelessly communicate audio to the wireless earbuds when the earbuds are not in the case. The case may further include an input port to receive an audio signal from a non-wireless source and may be configured to wirelessly transmit the audio received from the source to the wireless earbuds.” This means there is also a possibility the case would operate and pair separately from the wireless earbuds.
Voila! Wireless speakers.
This is just one of many Apple patents we’ve heard in the past. The previous included walkie talkies, fitness tacking, bone conduction, and water resistance. I guess only time will tell whether a doubling the charging case as Bluetooth speaker will come to fruition.
