The average price of a pair of headphones has inched past the $40 mark this year, according to new data released this week by Futuresource Consulting. We now pay an average of $42.70, which is a 14 percent rise year-on-year and maintains a trajectory of double-digit annual growth. Last summer, Futuresource reported an 11 percent rise in pricing in 2015, to a mark of $34, driven by an appetite for more advanced features. Those are things like advanced noise canceling, fitness tracking for sports buds, and the novelty of integrated assistant software (like with Google Assistant on Bose’s updated QC35s).
By far the most commonly sought extra feature, however, is wireless technology, which Futuresource’s analysts believe is primarily r...
