You really should discuss about business and strategy because you don't really understand it. So in your bizaro world, Apple should NEVER had come out with the iPhone because it destroyed the iPod sales? Apple should abandon their 5+ billion/quarter iPad business because if draws money away from their 4 billion/quarter Mac business?
You keep leaving the /s tag off so I have to assume you are serious.
lol Business strategy is what I do, and I'm quite good at it. Although any discussion about a strategy that doesn't understand the full road map is inherently flawed, a comparison between the iPhone and the iPod is sophomoric at best, but likely just plain dumb. The iPhone was a new category of product, not a product line within the same product category. That's a difference you seem to miss in your fallacious analogy. The iPhone created new category that wholly encompass multiple old categories, and that is the natural order of technological advancement, hence it's a perfectly valid strategy.
My observations is about Beats. Allowing a product from the Beats brand to remain stagnant, thus creating space for competitors to make more compelling products and thus grow their market share... well, that's just poor. When a new product comes out that is an entirely different line within the headphone category, and it eats away at sales from disparate lines within the company's portfolio... well, that's just not promising.
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Since you mentioned the Samsung EarPods...just a general FYI to everyone...I've got these
http://www.samsung.com/us/audio/headphones/in-ear/gear-iconx-black-sm-r150nzkaxar/
I don't know if they're defective or what, but they sound so tinny. I have to put the volume higher than I would prefer just to hear anything and when I do...everyone sounds tinny with about as much depth and resonance as The Chipmunks.
And talk about popping out of my ears...they don't just pop out and fall down...they practically self eject from my ears and go flying.
There are three ear tip pieces total to try out but they go deep into the ear canal which may be why they work themselves out and self eject as I move my head around. No headbanging to heavy metal with these earbuds in! Thank goodness my husband got them for free. They came bundled as part of a bunch of freebies when my husband got me a Galaxy S7 and Gear VR bundle for Christmas (the S7 and the VR goggles are very nice).
My husband has the Air Pods. I got to try them and they fit nicely enough on me like the regular Apple earbuds do. The sound is good. Not great, but very good. They totally kick Samsung's IconX's butt. The Samsung ones look so much better and the Apple ones look absolutely ridiculous, but it's all about the sound and in that respect, Apple wins, at least with the particular ones I got to try.
I agree with you. They sound horrible. Same with the Sol Republics. That bass on the Sol's are far better than anything out now, but there's an electronic distortion that erodes audio quality. I took both the Samsung and Sol's back. I love my AirPods. They are the right balance of audio quality, fit, and tech.
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???? Are you serious? Seriously? Or did you forget the /s tag at the end.
With half a brain you will notice Apple went from 24% share to 41% share. And you think this is bad? Seriously?
NOTE: If you are not willing to eat your own young in business, a competitor will.
Short term gains are not interesting at all, particularly with how Apple's new product launches work. This is pretty par for the course for new product lines. Anyone with any experience in long term business strategy will immediately jump to the loss in market share they experienced from more mature product lines that should not really compete with AirPods. The Beats product line has no direct competitor for the AirPods, so losing market share in their lines while your competition grows market share is what actually looks interesting.
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They still went from 24% to 40% of an expanding market. That's a good thing. I'm sure they expected to cannibalize Beats sales. Apple does that all the time (better that they do it than someone else take their market share).
I hope they didn't expect to cannibalize too much... the AirPods don't compete with any Beats headphones. Totally different audience and user. These aren't workout headphones, so the PowerBeats line shouldn't lose much. They are over-ear, so the Studios and Solos shouldn't lose much. They are losing share to Bose and then losing to their own (cheaper) AirPods. Any company that releases a product that generates less revenue (and my assumption here, less profit) than it's existing lines will be in trouble long term. Do I think Apple is in trouble? No. But do I think there is not much to celebrate here, and actually some signs of concern? Yep.