As expected, TWS earbuds entry into the Enterprise world is in full swing. JLab’s new workbuds are now available to order. The new earbuds, retailing for $79.99, come with a detachable boom for use as either a consumer device for listening to music, or as a call ready headset. One glaring issue that SAR sees with this product however is the list of available codecs, or lack of. Currently, the earbuds are sold with only the Bluetooth Classic default, SBC, with no sign of any LE Audio functionality.
2023 is the year that the Bluetooth Sig’s, Fraunhofer, and Ericsson’s LC3 is truly coming to market, and a codec that is capable of increasing voice quality substantially should surely be a staple in this year’s enterprise products. Perhaps JLab are attempting to benefit from the hype that will be improved enterprise devices with a year of higher shipment volumes. They could also be scoping the market to eventually release an LC3 compatible pair of TWS earbuds later in the year. Either way, a TWS device with a boom attachment is still a great way to increase capture quality from the classic TWS design.
SAR Expects to see many more devices like this one emerging this year, however, we expect these devices will slowly begin to incorporate the new default codec.
