Apple Didn’t Even Announce This Year’s Most Intriguing New iPhone Accessory

Apple’s latest iPhone case is fairly insignificant on its own. But it asks some bigger questions about the future of a subsidiary brand.

By Jack Seemer

Published September 9, 2024

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Updated September 9, 2024

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There was some hope coming into Glowtime, the name Apple gave to this year’s September keynote, that the company might finally fix those dreadful FineWoven cases. Instead, we got something else entirely.

Launched in 2023 alongside the iPhone 15, FineWoven was supposed to be a “luxurious and durable microtwill,” according to Apple. Only, it wasn’t durable at all, with users reporting significant scuffing after light usage.

A year on, it looks like Apple will all but abandon FineWoven, with only the MagSafe Wallet and a key ring made from the material surviving a refresh of its online store.

But it did deliver something in its place: a hardshell polycarbonate iPhone 16 case under the Beats brand. Available in four colors — Midnight Black, Summit Stone, Riptide Blue and Sunset Purple — it retails for $49, the same price as Apple’s two other in-house cases.

New Release

Beats iPhone 16 Case with MagSafe

$49 at Apple

Truth be told, the product itself is fairly insignificant — at least on paper. Apple already makes a hard polycarbonate case, even if it didn’t yet come in trendy colors with fun names.

But the release is intriguing in the sense that it asks larger questions about Beats, which Apple famously purchased in 2014 to the sum of $3 billion.

Beyond audio for Beats?

Founded in 2006, Beats calls itself, first and foremost, an “audio company” with a focus on headphones and speakers.

At one point, according to the market research company Circana, it held a 64 percent share of the premium headphone market — an increasingly crowded space thanks to Apple’s own house-branded audio line.

But over the last few years, Apple has positioned the subsidiary as a budget-friendly branch within its greater product ecosystem. Earlier this year, Beats came out with affordable $80 earbuds, as well as a new version of its trendy pill-shaped portable speaker that retails for $150.

Beats Pill speaker — The Beats Pill, rereleased earlier this year.

So what is it doing making iPhone cases now?

On Reddit, one user suggested that the cases weren’t as sustainable and that by branding them Beats, Apple could skirt its own deadline to become a carbon-neutral company by 2030.

However, that theory can be quickly debunked with a quick glance on the product page. It states that the Beats case is crafted with “post-consumer recycled materials,” while the packaging is 100 percent “fiber based.”

More than likely, the move to release iPhone cases signals a broader move by Apple to position Beats as a full-on lifestyle brand.

“Beats has always been synonymous with distinctive style and vibrant colors,” says Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats, in a press release. “Our new cases are the perfect way to accessorize the new iPhone 16 lineup.”

Does this mean more whimsical releases from Beats down the road? Or potentially the beginning of Apple’s new de facto accessories brand?

It can be a fool’s errand to predict what tricks Apple has up its sleeve, let alone when they’ll be unveiled. But more ways to customize its gear certainly sounds like music to the ears.