Jabra will end Elite earbud lineup after ‘Gen 2’ update brings new ‘Plug and Play’ case

Ben Schoon | Jun 12 2024 - 1:39 am PT

Jabra has announced, somewhat unexpectedly, that it will largely exit the earbud market, but not before offering a final refresh to the Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active.

The Jabra Elite series has offered some of the best earbuds of the past several years, with the company bringing its prowess in microphones and audio to the form factor. That included the Jabra Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active which launched last year. The two pairs of earbuds offered excellent sound quality and features, and now they’re getting a refresh.

“Gen 2” updates to the Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active will bring some new updates to each product.

Starting with Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2, the big update here is on spatial audio support for Dolby Atmos content. It’s also claimed that noise cancellation should be improved, and the hardware has been tweaked slightly to be a little more open to reduce any feeling of the earbud plugging up your ears.

Elite 8 Active Gen 2 also bring improvements to durability, with IP68 water and dust resistance and an updated MIL-STD-810h rating for ruggedization.

But the really big update is that both earbuds now include a “Plug and Play” case. This allows the case to be used as an adapter to play audio through a wired source. So, in airplane for example, you could use the case to transmit audio from the seatback display to the earbuds without the use of another, potentially clunky adapter. This isn’t a new feature in the industry, but it’s still very underused, and it’s good to see Jabra adopting it.

9to5Toys has more details on all of the new features in Jabra’s updated lineup.

However, this will sadly mark the end of the Jabra Elite lineup.

In a press release, it’s explained that Jabra will be ending both its Elite and Talk lineups of earbuds, effectively exiting the earbud market altogether. Jabra’s parent company, GN, explains that this is to “further increase focus and resources on more attractive parts of GN’s business.” It’s further noted that the “very competitive space” would have required more investment than the company was willing to take on, despite the Elite lineup being more profitable than it was before.

The re-focusing of the Elite product line towards the premium segment, which was initiated in 2023, has resulted in a stronger profitability level than before. However, the investment required for future innovation and growth in this very competitive space is deemed unjustified in the long-term given associated risks. The Talk product line follows a similar logic and is positioned in the declining mono Bluetooth market. Consequently, following a thorough business review the decision has been taken to gradually wind-down both the Elite and Talk product lines.

Jabra will continue to support its existing earbuds for the foreseeable future and will launch the Elite 10 Gen 2 and Elite 8 Active Gen 2 “later this month” as its gradually winds down the business.

Pre-orders for Elite 10 Gen 2 and Elite 8 Active Gen 2 are open now.