I have a few Beats products and I enjoy them but I am stunned Apple is even rumored to be buying them. What gives, why would Apple want them?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple in Talks to Acquire Beats Electronics for $3.2 Billion [Updated]
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
agreed they should get Jambox and just give it a make over and better marketing.
Beats look and sound crappy. They are also in HP computers haha. 3.2 billion for this company is a waste.
Sure, that's how a deal would go down. The problem I'm having is with the initial premise - that Apple can't quickly build a great streaming service.
They already stream audio via iTunes Radio and iTunes Match, and a decision to build a full-on, Spotify-style streaming service would have been taken a while ago. What could possibly be so hard that a company the size of Apple couldn't glue the pieces together?
The only reason people, myself included, dislike beats is because those "gray geeky no-name headphone companies" are the ones selling products that sound substantially better at much lower prices (klipsch, sony, grado, sennheiser, etc. for example). When it comes to headphones, sound is more important than looks, and that's why the hate generally exists for the brand. It's style over substance, especially in their price brackets. The $300 they charge for the studio models compared to their equivalent sound at that price range is absolutely ludicrous. For their sound, they are $70 dollar headphones at best, at least in my opinion.
Tim Cook has completely lost it. After all these years of running Apple, post Steve Jobs, he's introduced no new product categories and is spending billions on ****** headphones and streaming service (which he already has and can even match for few million in extra programming).
As much as I believed in Tim Cook, if this deal is true, I'm not going to put much faith in future Apple.
Maybe all those Apple detractors were right maybe such low AAPL P/E is right.
As much as I believed in Tim Cook, if this deal is true, I'm not going to put much faith in future Apple.
Maybe all those Apple detractors were right maybe such low AAPL P/E is right.
And style is of utmost importance to Apple too. A good business pairing, IMO, although B&O, B&W and Bose are closer to Apple's style. And they all begin with B.
No need to apologize. The Beats sound is not my thing at all, but it obviously has its fans. That said, I think this is a play for the streaming service. My guess is that Apple keeps the Beats name intact and sells the headphones from a Beats subsidiary, while integrating the streaming service into its own music offerings.
What's interesting is what this putative acquisition says about Tim Cook's leadership. Clearly, he agrees with Steve that music is part of Apple's core DNA. Thus, Apple's biggest acquisition ever is a straight-up music play. Also, this shows some awareness by Tim that Apple has some warts when it comes to creating competitive internet services.
Overall, I like it. Although I view the Beats hardware as middling, I think the streaming service has mindshare that Apple has historically struggled to achieve. In short, Apple seems to have recognized that it has a glaring imperfection and apparently wants to use some of its cash to fix that. From where I sit, that seems like a decent call.
Actually profits and revenue have gone up since cook took over. Apple is even bigger than when jobs left. Everyone who is so upset about this is missing the whole point of it. Apple is likely looking to buy beats for a lot of reasons, their music software being a big part. The headphones division will likely see a major apple influence (quality and design) before any apple branded beats headphones make it to market.
Music has long been the soul at apple, this makes sense in many ways.
For the last time the deal isn't about the headphones, it's about the STREAMING MUSIC SERVICE.
iTunes is in danger of losing the online music game to Spotify if they don't offer a superior streaming music service within a year's time.
Purchasing Beats is crucial to iTunes's future, and will presumably help Apple fast-track a robust and well curated streaming music service.
iTunes is in danger of losing the online music game to Spotify if they don't offer a superior streaming music service within a year's time.
Purchasing Beats is crucial to iTunes's future, and will presumably help Apple fast-track a robust and well curated streaming music service.
Only one of so many asinine comments in this thread. Daimler did nothing with Chrysler but suck them dry and dumping them to Cerberus. The only good thing was giving them some tech for the LX cars.
I would never own a pair of Beats, but I am absolutely certain that there are more Beats cans plugged into iDevices than all other premium phones put together. Add the Music service which brings the former MOG into play.
Just because the product is not your cup of tea, does not make it bad.
Asa stockholder, I am stoked, but I'll keep my Ety's.
While I agree, Apple also stocks their store with quality audio products, B&W in particular, so picking something like Beats, especially with the way they are marketed and viewed as a brand when compared to Apple, is strange to me. B&W or Harmon Kardon seem way more fitting from a marketing perspective. After all, Apple is viewed as a premium brand, and though Beats arguably are, the adoption of them would, at least in my opinion, devalue that premium image.
They're buying the streaming service and label deals and leverage. They'll probably bin the headphone division. It's a long term investment in software and services. It's glaringly obvious Beats has nothing to offer Apple on the hardware side.
Yes the hardware is better on Bose. But they don't have any music service which includes millions of customers that Apple wants. The price is paid for that.
Bose vs Beats
I'd say they have mastered their practice a bit more than Beats for sure. For Bose, I find their speakers to be some of the best out there. However, as for headphones, they could be a lot better. Bose and Beats both spend far too much money advertising for their products. They should be putting more money into research and development to improve their product. Earlier I said that Bose headphones could be a lot better. I say this because their build quality is horrid, and unless you are in an airplane, they make for some of worst quality cans on the market. Their noise-cancelling feature does nothing but harm the quality of the music you are listening to. They should work on making their cans better at noise-isolation and and improve their drivers and quality before they throw more money at advertising. For the record, I am not in any way defending Beats. I despise their company and everything about their products. I only wanted to show that Bose has a great deal of room for improvement.
I'd say they have mastered their practice a bit more than Beats for sure. For Bose, I find their speakers to be some of the best out there. However, as for headphones, they could be a lot better. Bose and Beats both spend far too much money advertising for their products. They should be putting more money into research and development to improve their product. Earlier I said that Bose headphones could be a lot better. I say this because their build quality is horrid, and unless you are in an airplane, they make for some of worst quality cans on the market. Their noise-cancelling feature does nothing but harm the quality of the music you are listening to. They should work on making their cans better at noise-isolation and and improve their drivers and quality before they throw more money at advertising. For the record, I am not in any way defending Beats. I despise their company and everything about their products. I only wanted to show that Bose has a great deal of room for improvement.
I'd be willing to bet that Apple sells far more Beats than they do B&W. Only people into audio know B&W, but everyone has heard of Beats and the kids love them. Beats are mediocre sound quality at premium prices. But the young generation loves that heavy bass, even if it is exaggerated and completely inaccurate. Beats are a good fit for EDM and rap. All of this is IMO, of course
So from a business perspective, Beats has a huge following and they probably have big profit margins.
this is a good move. Theoretically, Beats has already signed the right contracts for their music service so it'd be easy for Apple to integrate. Beats headphone business is probably also somewhat profitable so it's not like they're buying a losing business.
regardless of your personal feelings about beats, it's absolutely ignorant of someone to not appreciate just how successful they've become. Leave your own judgement out of a business decision.
regardless of your personal feelings about beats, it's absolutely ignorant of someone to not appreciate just how successful they've become. Leave your own judgement out of a business decision.
It's a little obvious when the rush out half finished products that just happen to include the features in devices Apple is rumored to be about to release. They also schedule the release of it days before Apple is expected to do so.
