Dyson Has Killed Its Bizarre Zone Air-Purifying Headphones

“Zone was nan consequence of six years of modeling and testing, of making possibly dozens of tooling models. Even if you conscionable presume a squad of 10 people, moving connected this task for six years, you’re talking astir a batch of expense,” Lam says. “Sound tuning is expensive, prototype testing is very expensive. It’s difficult to cipher exactly, but I’m judge it will person costs tens of millions of dollars. And nan consequence is simply a merchandise pinch nary revenue, nary profit margin, and nary visibility. I haven’t seen a azygous brace being worn successful Hong Kong.”

And Hong Kong is not nan only Asian territory wherever nan anecdotal grounds for Zone is uninspiring, contempt nan truth that Dyson is simply a revered marque sanction successful Asia, pinch immense presence. No awesome retailer tin thief you. At nan Gain City Megastore, which astatine 11 stories is Singapore’s largest user electronics unit store, they’re not successful stock. At e-Earphone, Japan’s largest headphone retailer, they’re not disposable either.

Yodobashi is nan world’s largest concatenation of electronics stores, but erstwhile WIRED visited nan Kyoto branch precocious nan Dyson Zone was conspicuous only by its absence—and this is an electronics shop pinch a “wireless headphones” section that has a footprint comfortably larger than that of nan mean Japanese apartment.

Dyson launched its OnTrac regular over-ear noise-canceling headphones pinch nary wider innovative/unnecessary/bizarre (reader's choice) functionality successful July 2024, conscionable complete a twelvemonth aft nan Zone. And arsenic a measurement of entering nan marketplace pinch a merchandise that doesn’t actively scare people, and of competing pinch established brands connected a like-for-like basis, it looks for illustration a sensible move.

Certainly, our reappraisal of nan OnTrac discusses nan fantabulous noise-canceling, nan nicely balanced sound, and nan absorbing business design. We gave them an 8 retired of 10, on pinch a coveted “WIRED Recommends” badge—a acold outcry from nan Zone’s rating, and rather nan turnaround. Jake is justifiably proud of them. Also, nan move from Zone to OnTrac shows a definite way contempt nan mediocre fortunes of Dyson's first plaything astatine audio.

“We’ve learned a batch of lessons. It would beryllium stupid not to return things further successful audio," says Jake. "Looking astatine different headphones retired there, they each conscionable look nan same: achromatic plastic, not very bully forms. Aesthetically, there’s thing profoundly missing successful position of headphones. We thought we could execute nan champion noise-canceling retired there, and besides bring thing much absorbing successful position of design. Engineer a beautiful product, bring customization, and much of a manner element.”

As OnTrac has intelligibly sold importantly much than Zone, does Dyson see Zone to beryllium a merchandise that didn’t work, and OnTrac 1 that did? “[We've sold] ten-fold [more]—and we launched OnTrac past July, though you could opportunity September was erstwhile it came to life. It usually takes astir six months earlier group recognize there’s thing there. OnTrac worked. [As for nan Zone] we ne'er deem thing to beryllium a failure, because we ever study something.”