In 2011, the iPod celebrated its tenth anniversary and played a key role in the evolution of the music industry. However, beyond songs and players, Apple was already interested in headphones and speakers, although it would still take three years to buy Beats, five to launch the first AirPods and eight to launch the original HomePod.
Aside from the fact that these products aren’t being developed in two days, there is some evidence to suggest that these plans started aligning well before their official launch. One of them was the signing of Gary Geaves for Apple’s sound zone. A secret zone of these and of which he spent years being the leader.
Geaves passes the sound baton to Apple, even if he will not part with it completely
Around 300 employees now make up Apple’s audio sector. A department in which, in addition to work on future AirPods and HomePods, as well as their derivative technologies, a lot of effort is also devoted to improving speakers and microphones for other products like iPhones or Macs .
As we previously reported, Gary Geaves took the helm in 2011, being named Apple’s vice president of audio. Before that He had previously worked for Bowers & Wilkinsa renowned British company specializing in audio and in which Geaves had carried out research and development work.
Although he still appears with this position in his LinkedIn profile, Bloomberg already announced last month that leaves the company. His replacement will be Ruchir Dave, whom Geaves will probably still accompany so that the passing of the baton is less painful both for him as the one taking responsibility, and for Apple ultimately. However, Dave has been with the company for 15 years (since 2009), so he won’t be new to you either.
Along the way, Geaves has been responsible for great products like those mentioned above. The six generations of AirPods (three ‘standard’, two ‘Pro’ and one ‘Max’) and up to three HomePods including the two large and the ‘mini’. He is precisely the first speaker who is said to have contributed greatly to making it what it was.
It must be said that it is not known for certain what projects Geaves will now undertake and whether or not they will be linked to the work he has carried out over the last 13 years. However, some sources familiar with this information suggest that will continue to be an Apple consultant in this area of acoustics.
Geaves leaves Apple after gigantic growth in the sound zone
The reasons why Geaves made the decision to take a new direction in his professional life are unknown. What is clear is the legacy he leaves, since Over the past decade, this has helped increase revenues by 75%..
This is data obtained from the company itself and is summarized well in this Bloomberg chart. We see that in 2023 the wearables, home and accessories sector was closed with 39.8 billion dollars in revenue, very far from the 8.4 billion obtained in 2014. Although, yes, with a slight recession last yeargiven that $41.2 billion in revenue was obtained in 2022, which is 3.5% more than what was obtained in 2023.
The numbers are somewhat confusing when you consider that Apple spends revenue on it from devices like the Apple Watch, as well as iPhone cases or keyboards, in addition to AirPods and HomePod . However, across all of these devices, it’s clear that the scale of AirPods sales was clearly a driving factor in this data.
In the hands of men like Ruchir Dave are now the next releases. On the nearest horizon, some long-awaited AirPods 4 are expected, of which interesting news has already been leaked. Along the way, there might also be a few surprises that Gavies was already working on, like the widely rumored HomePod with screen.
As surprising as it may seem, there is not a single public image of Gary Geaves.
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