Popular Apple accessories maker Anker Innovations will open its first standalone store this week and pull its five category-based sub-brands under a single banner: Anker.
The idea is to simplify Anker’s product branding and take control of the company’s in-store marketing. It reminds me of what Apple did after Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997.
“Category brands made sense when categories were separate. They no longer are,” said Steven Yang, founder and CEO of Anker Innovations, in a press release Thursday. Instead, Anker will simply things into “one brand, one promise — Ultimate Innovation, now unified across everything we make.”
The first Anker store will open this week in Berlin, not coincidentally the city that hosts the annual IFA tech conference where Anker and others will showcase their latest wares.
Anker to open its own stores, consolidate its brands
Apple set the standard for high-tech retail when it opened the first Apple Stores in 2001. Beautiful architecture and dedicated Apple staffers turned the stores into sanctified showcases for the company’s pristine devices.
Since then, other tech companies have tried (and failed) to create their own destination-worthy shopping outlets. Now Anker, which started out selling chargers on Amazon nearly 15 years ago, is making its move into real-world retail to provide integrated showrooms for its rapidly growing product line.
As Anker produced more devices over the past decade, it “built dedicated brands to move faster in distinct categories: Anker for charging, eufy for the smart home, soundcore for audio and entertainment, Solix for energy and eufyMake for creative tools,” the company said.
Now, those lines are blurring — so Anker is erasing them and bringing its entire catalog under one umbrella brand and showcasing everything in its bespoke stores.
“As AI, robotics, local computing and connected systems bring once-separate technologies closer together, the boundaries between those categories are disappearing,” the company said. “Anker is bringing its products and technologies together under one brand to match.”
First Anker store will open in Berlin
Anker will open its first standalone retail store in Berlin this Saturday. At the store, the company’s products will be “arranged around real life rather than by product category,” the company said. Much like in an Apple Store, trained “Anker ambassadors” will demo various products. For instance, a customer might see a smart home hub, a security camera and a robot vacuum working together the way they would in the real world.
“We have spent nearly 15 years building products that solve real problems for consumers,” said Anker founder Yang. “Now, for the first time, people can experience the full Anker portfolio together in one place and see how those products increasingly work together. It is an exciting way to bring the new, unified Anker brand closer to our customers.”
Anker did not reveal exactly how many stores it plans to open, or in what cities, although it mentioned a planned U.K. store during an advance video briefing attended by Cult of Mac.
Two distinct product categories: Anker for You and Anker for Home
After simplifying the constellation of brands — much as Apple did with its confusing product lines after Steve Jobs returned to Cupertino — Anker is dividing its products into two straightforward categories: Anker for You and Anker for Home.
“Anker For You is the technology that moves through the day with you, covering charging, audio, personal health and creative tools,” the company said. “Anker for Home is the home that takes care of itself, covering home security, robotics and home energy. The change will be gradual. New products lead the move to the Anker brand and existing products transition over time. Warranty coverage, customer support and service remain unchanged.”
New Anker products at IFA: Anker for You
As if to prove its point about its growing lineup, Anker unveiled a raft of new products at IFA on Thursday. Highlights include multiple new earbuds, sleep speakers, a smart home hub and a robot mower.
After announcing its Thus AI chip in May, Anker is adding it to its lineup of new audio and sleep-oriented products.
Sleep earbuds and sleep speakers
Photo: Anker
Sleep 4 and Sleep 4 Pro sleep earbuds up the ante when it comes to blocking noise (think street clamor or snoring). “The Sleep 4 Pro adds the world’s first Track-Assess-Adjustment system, monitoring PPG, heart rate and HRV while utilizing BioSync data-driven dynamic audio to adjust audio content and help each user find their most effective sleep sounds,” Anker said. They come with a touchscreen charging case that “lets users set an alarm, play relaxing sounds and check insights without their phone.”
SleepLab and SleepLab Pro are the company’s first “sleep-focused bedside speakers,” designed for people who don’t like to wear earbuds at night. SleepLab “plays music and sleep sounds with a soft nightlight and alarm to set the mood for sleep,” Anker said. SleepLab Pro “uses 60 GHz radar for precise sleep sensing, tracking heart rate and breathing and analyzing the four stages of sleep, then plays tailored audio to help users fall asleep and stay asleep, with no earbuds, ring or monitor required.”
New earbuds to challenge AirPods
Anker soundcore AeroClip 2 Pro brings the Thus AI chip to “an on-ear clip form factor with best-in-class call quality, and adds AI Voice Recording, capturing meetings, phone calls and personal interactions, then transcribing and summarizing lengthy conversations into a succinct summary. The AeroClip 2 shares the chip and the form factor.
Space 2 Pro over-ear headphones deliver “best-in-class call quality,” thanks to microphones, sensors and the Thus chip. They achieve “30 hours of battery life with ANC and 60 hours with ANC off,” the company said.
Liberty Buds 2 in-ear earbuds “feature an 8-sensor array for crystal-clear calls, while 9.2 mm drivers deliver detailed audio for music and video,” the company said.
Hearing aids
Anker also said it will begin producing devices for hearing health, “starting with hearing aids powered by its proprietary Thus AI chip and drawing on the noise reduction, long battery life and fast charging developed in its earbuds. More details will be provided in the coming months.”
New Anker charging products
Image: Anker
Anker MagGo Power Bank 2 Pro is “the world’s fastest and coolest wireless power bank and the first magnetic power bank with a built-in cooling fan,” Anker said. “True 25-watt Qi2.2 magnetic wireless charging delivers wired-level speed, taking an iPhone 17 Pro to 50% in 25 minutes and the power bank recharges itself to 80% in 52 minutes.” The 10,000 mAh power bank also boasts “a patented fan control algorithm, dual air ducts and a three-layer graphene heat-spreading system” to keep iPhones cool while charging. The charger’s smart display “shows real-time power, temperature, battery level and time remaining. Available in the United States on Sept. 17 for $109.99 in phantom gray, starlight silver and polar night blue.
Anker Laptop Charger Pro is a small, lightweight, 100-watt Max GaN charger that “recognizes the specific laptop model connected and manages its battery health over time, with 100% recognition for Mac models and more than 90% for Windows devices using the desktop app,” Anker said. Care Mode “applies a dedicated charging curve for that device and, combined with an 80% charge limit, extends battery lifespan by up to 40%.” The accompanying desktop app manages “monthly battery health reports and custom charging thresholds.”
Anker MagStand Charging Station “replaces three bedside chargers with one device, combining a 25-watt Max magnetic pad, a retractable cable and a hidden USB-C port. Qi2 25-watt charging with active cooling takes an iPhone 17 Pro to 50% in 22 minutes while keeping the phone at 37 degrees Celsius, 5 degrees cooler than competitors.” Anker said it will become available in the United States in the second half of 2026.
New Anker products at IFA: Anker for Home
Photo: Anker
Anker describes its new smart home products as powering “the home that takes care of itself.” They include (all descriptions from Anker):
Anker MindBase is “a local AI hub and Anker’s answer to bringing the truly autonomous home to life,” the company said. It sounds like it will give Apple’s rumored smart home hub a run for its money. The MindBase “connects the devices across a home, runs the AI that makes decisions locally and stores the household’s data locally, all in a single system. MindBase is built on three key capabilities: connection, local intelligence and memory.” It connects to other Anker devices and Matter-compatible products, “working alongside Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Home Assistant.”
Anker eufy Robot Vacuum Omni E35 “brings deep cleaning that translates to a healthier home,” the company said. It promises “bacterial elimination, low noise levels, cleaning performance and self-cleaning capabilities.”
Image: Anker
Robot Lawn Mower S2 Max is “the company’s first robot mower developed entirely in-house, aimed at bringing more advanced robotics and AI into lawn care,” the company said. The fully autonomous all-wheel drive robomower operates without boundary wires or real-time kinematic positioning for “true edge-to-edge cutting with an automatic extendable cutting arm.”
Anker Solix Solarbank Max is “the world’s first plug-in energy storage system that
matches home battery specifications, with 10 kW solar input, 7 kWh capacity (expandable to 42
kWh) and 3,500 W AC output,” the company said. The new solar-power system cuts installation costs and time.
