Is TWS the next driving force for the consumer electronics market? Let’s see what Apple’s earbud patents tell us.
Since the debut of Apple’s Airpods in 2016, it’s hard not to notice increasing numbers of people enjoying music and videos with a pair of small, white, streamlined earbuds in their ears. As reported this September by DigiTimes, the PCB and IC substrate suppliers have seen a significant rise in the shipment of True Wireless Stereo (TWS) gadgets in the second half of 2020. We didn’t need to wait until the end of 2020 to see that happen, as Apple’s financial statement — published in 2019 — shed some light on what was to come.
Apple’s 2019 10-K report stated the sales of “Wearables, Home and Accessories” had increased by 41% since 2018 — the boost was mainly due to the high net sales of Airpods and the Apple Watch. According to a 2019 article published by FORTUNE, Apple would sell 50 million Airpods at $159 per pair, which would account for 8 billion in revenue. Compared to the net sale figures in the 10-K report, more than one-third of the revenue in the “Wearable, Home and Accessories” category comes from Airpods.

Apple’s 2019 Financial Statement – 10-K report
(Source: Apple)
The market success of Airpods should not be attributed to Apple alone, but also to the supply chain partners who make it feasible to integrate acoustic, Bluetooth, and transducer ICs into the tiny space of the headset. As Airpods become an essential revenue source for Apple, it could be speculated that the patents involved in this product may tell us more about Apple’s next steps relating to TWS technology development.
Using Due Diligence, it takes just a few seconds to analyze the earbud patent portfolio of Apple Inc. At first, we identified the earbud-related patent portfolio under the ownership of Apple Inc. and its affiliates. There are 270 patent applications corresponding to 84 families in the scope of the due diligence analysis.

The Analysis Scope of Apple’s Earbud Patent Portfolio
(Source: Due Diligence)
The first chart shows that Apple’s earbud patent portfolio’s global coverage is over 13 countries. The US is the major filing country, with over 120 applications; this is around six times higher than the EP and CN applications (2nd and 3rd major filing countries).

Apple’s Earbud Portfolio: Global Coverage
(Source: Due Diligence)
Moreover, the distribution of patented earbud technology for Apple’s portfolio has a remarkable focus on the Electric Communication Technique (H04 by IPC classes), followed by Music Instruments, Acoustic technology (G10 by IPC classes) with a much-reduced patent count. Because of this, the patented technology that Apple has attempted to use to cover their TWS products is mainly focused on electric communications.

Apple’s Earbud Portfolio: Technology Distribution by IPC Classes
(Source: Due Diligence)
By deconstructing the H04 patents by subclasses in more detail, the H04R subclass related to Loudspeakers, Microphones… is the dominant technology classification under the H04 hierarchy. When looking deeper into the H04R subclass, transducer (H04R 1/00) and deaf-aid set (H04R 25/00) are the top two technologies that Apple has filed for mostly.
It’s not surprising to see that one focus of Apple’s earbud technology is on transducers. Interestingly, the focus on deaf-aid technology indicates that a medical application could be incorporated into future AirPods products.

Apple’s Earbud Portfolio: Technology Distribution by IPC Subclasses
(Source: Due Diligence)
Through the patent due diligence analysis, some information — not previously released to the public — may be uncovered via patent data. On the one hand, we found out that Apple has excellent global patent coverage for Airpods — over 13 countries. On the other hand, we may see more functional applications (e.g., medical) being integrated into the future versions of Apple’s TWS products. By taking advantage of the patent data, supply chain partners can be better prepared to meet their clients’ specification requirements proactively.

hello there and thank you for your information – I’ve certainly picked up
something new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical issues using this site, as I experienced
to reload the site lots of times previous to I could get it to load correctly.
I had been wondering if your web host is OK?
Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and can damage your quality score if advertising and marketing with
Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my email and
can look out for much more of your respective exciting content.
Make sure you update this again soon.
I really like reading through an article that will make men and women think.
Also, thank you for allowing for me to comment!
What’s up to every body, it’s my first visit of this blog; this
web site includes awesome and genuinely good data in favor of visitors.
Here is my blog post – aaa1188 ios
Fine way of explaining, and pleasant paragraph to get information regarding my presentation focus, which i am going to convey in academy.
Also visit my web page; hengheng2 love138 (918kiss-m.com)
I believe that is one of the most significant info for me.
And i am glad reading your article. However wanna commentary on few normal things, The site style
is perfect, the articles is actually excellent :
D. Just right activity, cheers
My blog … 918kaya id test
I know this website presents quality based content and additional stuff, is there any
other website which gives these kinds of data in quality?
Also visit my website – greatwall99 download pc
Hello, I log on to your new stuff daily. Your writing style is witty, keep it up!
Feel free to visit my site :: game online playboy2; 918kiss-m.com,
I just couldn’t leave your website before suggesting that I actually loved the standard info an individual supply for your guests?
Is gonna be again often to inspect new posts
Here is my web page … lpe88 download
Greetings I am so thrilled I found your webpage, I really found you by mistake, while I was researching
on Aol for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say thank
you for a remarkable post and a all round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have
time to read through it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and
also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the superb job.
Also visit my web blog pussy888 online – 918kiss-m.com,
The explosive development of sports betting has led to lots of competition.
Hi, for all time i used to check blog posts here early in the break of day,
for the reason that i like to learn more and more.
I blog often and I genuinely appreciate your content.
Yourr article has really peaked my interest. I am going too boⲟkmark your website annd keep checming for new details about once a week.
I subscribed to your Feed as well.
Pretty! This hɑs been a reallʏ wonderful article.
Thank you foг supplуing these details.
Keep on writing, great job!
In other states, such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, it’s a lot simpler.
Good answer back in return of this query with solid arguments
and describing everything about that.
Whats up very nice site!! Man .. Beautiful .. Wonderful ..
I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds also?
I am happy to seek out a lot of useful info right here in the post,
we need develop more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing.
. . . . .
Hi there, I enjoy reading through your post. I wanted to write a little comment to support you.