Last month was huge for Bose's earbuds output, thanks to the release of not one but two successors to the excellent Bose Ultra Open, a delightfully emo collab on the company's flagship cans and a set of wired, inexpensive earbuds that boast ANC, controlled by the inline remote.

So hang on, on the one hand we've got an evolution on a groundbreaking, clip-style, wire-free product Bose pioneered just over two years ago, (something President Raza Haider says he's "happy to take credit for — making open-ear mass market"). And on the other hand we have… wired earbuds like it's 2003?

Yes. And Bose President of Premium Audio, Raza Haider, is happy to talk about the nostalgia-driven technology trend many of us are seeing. After all, who could forget the various 'digital detox' resolves at the start of the year, compounded by the advent of the great privacy revolt concerning glasses, TVs and even wireless earbuds that want to know a little too much about us?

I start off asking Haider simply, "Who knew wired earbuds would be so popular in 2026?"

"Right? I know", Haider laughs. "It was a funny story actually. Over the last three, four years, the team's done a really good job of being able to capture insights and turn them into products much faster than we historically were able to.

"So the idea [for the wired earbuds] actually came a year and a half ago, when I was dropping my daughter off at university.

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