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Product Requirements

Project Objective

This project aims to investigate and develop smart adaptive technologies, an improved user experience, better fit, improved product design, and product customization options for the next-generation AirPods. The target is to maintain global dominance in the wireless earphone market, drive up AirPod sales to 100 million+ units sold with a 60% global market share in 2021 and expand the user base more towards the luxury, professional, and fitness segments. We believe that adding smart interactions and adaptive audio filters alone will already expand our user base by 15%. With the new generation AirPods we aim to match at least the sound quality of our main competitor, the Sony WF-1000XM3, and include Active Noise Canceling that is also featured in Mifo, House of Marley, Bose, and Amazon Echo products. We will also obtain IPX4 sweat-resistant rating equal to Bose, House of Marley, and Amazon Echo earbuds, and aim to extend our range of colors, as seen in Urbanista and Jabra’s lifestyle products.

Stakeholders

  • Target group High-income upper-class professionals between the age of 20 and 45. Their personalities are determined and ambitious. The main benefits sought are recreation and self-expression.
  • Target purchaser Target group profile with special attention to Full Nest I and Full Nest II mothers.
  • Customer service Prefers easy-to-repair, recyclable product, and easy-to-fix complaints to fit with Apple’s intuitive user experience.
  • Marketing & Sales division Looks for unique selling points around the Apple Aspirer-Explorer lifestyle and user experience.
  • Retailers Prefer products that can withstand a wide range of storage conditions including variations in temperature, vibration, humidity, and atmospheric pressure, and have a strong and compact, theft, and vandalism-proof packaging.

Use Cases

User Story #1: Jenna Jenna is a 33-year-old executive who regularly visits a bar for lunch to blow off some steam. The bar is often loud with people, but it is paramount that she can hold business conversations over the phone there. Then again, she does not want to miss out on the atmosphere and be able to hear the waiters as well. Her new Apple wireless earphones allow her to switch instantly between a mode where she can fully focus on the phone conversation and a mode where the phone call and environmental sound are seamlessly combined. They also allow her to rapidly adjust the volume on the earbuds themselves without having to take out her phone.

Jenna occasionally visits the bar in the evenings. She is a big fan of the L.A. Lakers, and whenever they play, she streams the live footage through her phone. Her new earbuds allow her to easily switch to hearing everything around her and streaming the match commentary without having to ever take the earbuds out. She sometimes gets compliments on how stylish the earbuds look on her, and she wouldn’t want to miss out on hearing those either.

Aspects

The new product design will be based on that of the AirPods with improvements based on the following requirements. The P1 - P10 is the "code" to indicate the priority of the requirement, from low to high.

  1. Producr Design
  2. 1.1 The product shall be visually easy to distinguish from existing AirPods as well as main competitors Sony WF-1000XM3, Jabra Elite, Amazon Echo Buds, Samsung Galaxy Buds, and Bose SoundSport Free, and Urbanista Stockholm. (P10)
  3. 1.1 The product shall be easy to recognize as an Apple product without needing a logo on its exterior. (P10)

  4. 1.2. The product shall avoid styling elements from our Powerbeats over-ear wireless headphones since those address a different market segment. (P8)

  5. Functionality

    • 2.1 The product shall incorporate one or more optical proximity sensors to detect the user wearing it. (P10)
    • 2.2 The product shall offer a dual microphone in each earbud. (P10)

Requirement Criteria Specifications

  • 1.1.1 - Regulate system power from 9 volts to 5 volts
  • 1.1.2 - Provide over-amperage project to not exceed 1.5 amps.

Open Questions

  • Can we move towards a recyclable and repairable product, for example, with ZIF connectors and glue-free assembly?
  • Can we improve on failing or self-igniting batteries?