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That's interesting. I always thought of them as a spin-off of Monster with a me-too streaming service. I'd like to know what makes them worth anything to Apple.

Maybe Tim just wanted to buy a dime bag and there was some confusion?

Because two black running a successful company must be drug dealers? :confused:

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You sir are in the minority. They are not durable. Made in china crap.

Everything is made in China :p
 
We have a winner!

Apple are hoping to get a good amount of money from the cash cow before it dries up and/or another musician lends his name to a product and people buy in.

Apple's position right now is such that as long as things are just 'good enough', they'll keep hold of customers. It's only when customers have reason to try alternatives that things will slip.

A 19 year old hip-hop fan won't give Sennheiser a chance, even though they're miles better and miles cheaper, much like most iPhone owners I know have never tried an Android device.

I have tried android: it sucks, piece of garbage, slow, breaks everywhere, bad app's, and the phones are even worse. Stopped working with my car when 4.2 came out, and Google stopped caring about my phone in 18 months after release. Battery just disappears for no good reason, and you can't install apps, specially IM and VoIP apps withou even having a second fought about the battery like on iOS. Piece of junk, just look at second-hand prices for android devices vs iPhone. Everyone I know that bought a flagship android, then bought an iPhone or a Lumia.
 
TC delivering on his promise

Tim Cook promised that Apple would be announcing new products later this year. Apparently it is going to be iBeats.
 
i noticed a lot of tunnel vision comments about Beats not being "good" and my reminder to you all would be that you are not the earth.

You are not the one true way and light and your preferences are not the end all be all. Nor are your purist audiophillie ideals representing of the masses or some greater whole.

Nay.

You are the minority. A small sub section of people who are out of touch with modern art.

The fact is, for dance music and for Urban pop the Beats by Dre headphones are a sonic balance of delicious energy. Well crafted to appropriate EQ to the right places where you want them for a pulse, bass, or pump.

Furthermore it is superior to a flat response so it is arguable that your favorite headphones are weaker for Dance and Urban genres because of its "accuracy" and therefore you are missing the whole point.

In the end, the brand serves as a reference point for the masses to know, ok this is a baseline level of quality for the gassy type songs the consumer craves. As opposed to what? Well the millions of gas station brands and ear pieces available that have anemic and fatiguing sounds that they might have tried out. Not all headphones are created equal, and amidst the confusion, the brand stands out for that beacon of baseline quality.

Sure there are other headphones in the same niche that give the same sound type for less money, BUT WHICH ONES ARE THEY? The masses don't know.

And they have no means to try them all out and the reviews are so confusing and subjective that its nice to just have a go to brand that does the job and skips all the confusion.

You can always spot the haters tho, spewing forth vitriol about something that they don't even realize there are points of view on. Convinced their way is so right. When in reality they are silly not to realize they are a small genre amongst many and their opinions are old and irrelevant, lacking in a certain testosterone needed to comprehend the cravings of the new world and the new generation.

Guess what, teens have ample testosterone and energy and they love beats.

oonts oonts oonts oonts oonts oonts oonts oonts....
 
I'd rather have earplugs!

The Beats I've heard are hateful hateful things.

Haha, well said. Yeah, it blows my mind to that so many people spend that kind of money on them. More expensive than a pair of Sennheiser HD25
 
That doesn't make his conclusion any less valid, Bose and Beats sell mediocre products to very gullible technically unsophisticated consumers at huge markups and do so very successfully and good luck to them. B&W on the other hand are a well respected company renowned for their technically advanced audio products at price levels that range from affordable to stratospheric! At all levels the intention is to provide the best audio experience they can provide and at the same time make a reasonable profit. I suppose my post makes me an "Audiophile Snob" too:)


No, B&W is not "audiphile", it's a good solid brand. Very expensive, but realistic.

The difference between "audiophile snob" and "high-end audio" is that the former's claims are measurable.

Believe me, I'm a minor league "audiophile snob" at best/worst, depending on your prospective. But there's a big difference between recognizing that a company like B & W has made it's name based on generally excellent, truly high-end audio products, while companies like Bose and Beats are companies that have made their named based on marketing generally mediocre products.

Bose is not audiophile.

You can say what you want from Bose, their products really sound very good. And they are actually very good at speaker design in difficult constraints. Not just gimmicks. They are a innovative company.
 
Apple deserves the epic self-clowning of that blindly narcissistic "corporate video" to sum up what they've become. I hope they aren't smart enough to cancel the acquisition now just so they can have their faces shoved in the tech poop even more.

The annoying OS X nosedive into pointless tech doodaddery is opening a new Vista for the company in the same way that acquiring Beats does. Unfortunately we users have to endure the suffering for that free crap. A new point release is like a new AOL CD in the mail. Thanks for the update guys. Microsoft must be overjoyed at the new opportunities that they have now that Apple is getting stuck on stupid.
 
It's a TRAP! Don't do it Apple! The PR is NOT worth it. They have a reputation for terrible build quality. Their drivers are worse than your basic in-ear headphones!

I wonder if it's a scam....
there is no deal someone has just used influence to make it seem like there is a deal.
 
It's amazing that no one is thinking about the "wearables" market here. Apple bought "COOL" with beats. (Not that apple isn't cool) But. Apple is now the establishment. Apple is the one that everyone is tilting windmills against. Beats buys them a new cool, they paid for a label and for ambassadors into a market that they may not of necessarily have before for wearables. The rumor about the headphones was supposedly a fake, but there's a lot of presence to it. The one thing that nearly everyone wears when the exercise is headphones. And iPod headphones define fly aren't cool anymore. I am embarrassed to wear them because, unlike with beats, they are all identical.
Beats IS the new hotness. And Apple is playing defense as the establishment for the first time.
 
As I said in the other thread, licensing terms and deals with the labels rarely transfer to new owners in acquisition. They have to be re-negotiated separately by the buyer of assets.

This is probably why we are hearing rumors of Apple trying to keep it a separate entity and keeping the same Beats streaming service in play with the same branding.
 
Why does everyone think the headphones are the only reason Apple would be interested in Beats? Between Dre and Iovine alone, you have two very well-respected producers/artists/music executives (which is more likely to improve relations with the music labels), a streaming service along the lines of what Apple wants to implement, and a lot of IP in the form of patents.
 
God I don't want to be a lame and be associated with Beats. Why not Sennheiser?
 
I've had the beats app on my iPhone for the trial and I am thinking when the trial is up, I will subscribe to it's full service. Why all the dislike?
 
Why? Beats is terrible at audio. If it was Bose/Bowers & Wilkins then I wouldn't be so surprised.

B&W are great audio, but shocking technology. My Zepp air was a disaster and my headphones kept getting loose connections. Their attitude? Send it back to them for £100 and they'll review.

I'll never but B&W again!!! Ever!!
 
How many people actually read the OP? The amount of comments regarding the quality of Beats headphones is quite astounding - which is absolutely not the point. The article makes it quite clear that apple is primarily interested in the streaming service.

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Also, I had a pair of Monster earbuds a few years back (Turbines) and they were fantastic for earbuds, way better than the sennheisers I have now (although the sens are a little cheaper).

All headphone brands that go from cheapish to a few hundred dollars all have demonstrated hits and misses. Anybody arguing that sennheiser (or any other consumer to pro-sumer brand) is outright better than those in a comparable price range (e.g bose or audio technica, monster, beats etc.) clearly doesn't have in depth experience with headphones and earbuds.
 
It's been about 2 weeks now. Whatever happened to this acquisition? I don't recall seeing official declaration of this purchase. If Dr Dre and Iovine are going to show up in WWDC as Apple Executives, isn't it time that to sign papers and start to prepare/ rehearse for their onscreen messaging?
 
Beats by chipmunk and papa bear for ghetto fabulous and clueless. Enough said.

I see plenty of kids, businessman, hipsters all walks of life wearing Beats. Beats has always been an Apple product(design by Key ex-Apple employees whom Apple would love to get back) one who which hired Jony Ive.
 
Hit to their image???? Explain

Sadly, for some the "hit" is related to discomfort about cultural and racial diversity. I think Apple should be applauded for pushing beyond an elitist mentality on that front.

The real hit comes in the price/value image. Beats (and its Monster Cable sibling) have a reputation for mediocre quality at outrageous profit margins driven by slick marketing. Apple tries to present an image of high price/high quality, where margins are to be seen as "worth it". Beats could damage that perception.
 
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