9/3
A few weeks ago, Apple announced that Beats 1 was being renamed Apple Music 1 and my immediate reaction was "is this the beginning of the end of the Beats brand?"
It's a bit of an ominous sign considering we're just a few weeks away from the reveal of Apple's rumored over ear AirPods Studio headphones. They'll plug the major gap in the AirPods lineup and continue to strengthen the rising brand. And if the Studio headphones do support a swappable head band and ear cups, they'll be able to satisfy both casual and sportswear usage depending on the accessories they're paired with. I strongly believe that's the approach they'll take; it's been working well for the Apple Watch.
Airpods' future partiy with Beats' lineup, now-stronger brand recognition, and closer association with Mac products seems like it will render Beats redundant. The obvious next step is to phase the brand out. I think they'll do this quietly—simply opting not to update key products. They'll make an announcement eventually—Beats was good to Apple—but by the time that happens it'll be obvious what was going on.
I don't know how long that's going to take but if it only takes Apple two years to transition to an entirely different CPU architecture, that's probably enough time to sunset a luxury audio hardware brand. The big question is when does the transition period start? We could already be in it.