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This makes me miss Steve Jobs so much. Remember when Apple made just a few insanely great products? Now they’ve got their brand on all sorts of crap.
Man, things change overtime. You'll die if you're close minded.
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The X design was a failure. No need to revamp that neckband style especially at $200.
Oh man I love that design
 
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It makes sense that Apple is trying to wind down the Beats brand. They've already absorbed Beats Music into Apple Music. With most consumer headphones going the wireless dual earbud route, it makes sense to sunset the Beats headphones brand, and rebrand any other headphone technology into the Apple brand. I'm surprised the Beats headphone brand has survived as long as it has.
It’s always seemed like they bought Beats for the brand image. They were probably planning out Apple Music’s roll-out at the same time, and wanted Beats users to have a streaming service “branded” with it. (I don’t see Beats 1 going away ANY time soon, for example.) They probably saw an opportunity to get a leg up on everyone else, given they’re also the *only* streaming service at the moment with the money to make that kind of acquisition (except maybe Amazon, but…lmao Amazon Music)

Basically, you can only make things disappear so quickly before trend-following teens/young adults start to notice ;-)
 
Looking forward to the Beats Studio over-ear headphones.
I purchased the Beats Solo Pro (on-ear) over the Bose and Sony's since its easily switches between 3 Apple devices and one other device. The noise cancellation is good but I hope the new Studio's will be improved.
 
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Beats has earned itself a reputation for being overpriced fashion junk, so it's probably good that they're phasing it out. Apple would have saved so much money if they bought out Nokia's MixRadio instead. It was a solid streaming platform, but as with anything that Microsoft touches during the Steve Ballmer era, they didn't know what to do with it.

I was considering the ‘BeatsX‘ within the last week (Found them new off Amazon for ~$85), talk about ‘hit and miss’ reviews. Literally, the biggest reviews I read about that item was hardware failing within less than three months of ownership. That
Seems to be the reputation suiting Beats with quite a few of their products from my research. Hard pass.
 
I was considering the ‘BeatsX‘ within the last week (Found them new off Amazon for ~$85), talk about ‘hit and miss’ reviews. Literally, the biggest reviews I read about that item was hardware failing within less than three months of ownership. That
Seems to be the reputation suiting Beats with quite a few of their products from my research. Hard pass.

That's actually what made me buy a different brand (Bose SoundSport Wireless). The reviews of the BeatsX were appalling.
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It’s always seemed like they bought Beats for the brand image. They were probably planning out Apple Music’s roll-out at the same time, and wanted Beats users to have a streaming service “branded” with it. (I don’t see Beats 1 going away ANY time soon, for example.) They probably saw an opportunity to get a leg up on everyone else, given they’re also the *only* streaming service at the moment with the money to make that kind of acquisition (except maybe Amazon, but…lmao Amazon Music)

Basically, you can only make things disappear so quickly before trend-following teens/young adults start to notice ;-)

There was actually another streaming service called MixRadio, created by then-dominant Nokia (later acquired by Microsoft). The actually have deals with the four largest record labels at the time, plus a bunch of independent labels. I wish Apple bought them instead. They would've been cheaper and the experience would've been better.
 
As for ‘over ear’ headphones, I just purchased the Sony WH-1000XM3’s last Monday. (They retail for $350, Similarly to what Apple will price their rumored headphones.) Blown away how quality these are with the construction/quality materials, fitment, Sounds/ANC is all on point.

If someone doesn’t want to wait until these ‘rumored headphones’ until June, highly recommend to look into these.
 
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"Generally speaking, Prosser believes that Apple's ultimate goal is to eventually phase out the Beats brand, as both of these new Apple headphones are similar to existing Beats products."

Apple could've bought out Beats' brand products to use its existing technologies and incorporate it into a new Apple line which would be less expensive than creating its own. Then phase out the Beats' products over time with the new Apple products later.
Also, Apple could've wanted Beats' customer base so that could've been a factor.
 
I empathize with you. I worked for Apple during the Steve Jobs era, and was still there when he passed. He chose Tim Cook as his successor, and advised him to run the company the way he (Cook) saw fit.

Yea, Seve's achilles heel, like with John Sculley.
 
Why? Apple makes a fortune from Beats branded products. It’s a very valuable brand name. It’s more than paid for itself, though some thought it too expensive at the time.

Valuable brand name? They sell fancy overpriced plastic and everybody knows it.
 
I'll be buying the Over Ears day one. Been putting off buying new/wireless over ears until Apple released something just because the pairing experience is so much better.
 
Wonder if the over-ears will have ANC.

definitely (unless this leaker is mistaking them for Beats Studio Pro 4’s. Even so those already have ANC and desperately need to be improved.

The Apple-branded over-ear headphones will retail at $449.99 US in line with the Bowers Wilkins B7 and Sony WH-1000XM3’s. Man I really need to create a shortcut for those lol.
 
This makes me miss Steve Jobs so much. Remember when Apple made just a few insanely great products? Now they’ve got their brand on all sorts of crap.

Yeah, remember they had a nice grid of a pro desktop and consumer desktop, a pro laptop and consumer laptop. And then they ruined it with crap like the G4 Cube, Mac mini, MacBook Air, all the iPods, the dumb iPhone, the stupid Hi Fi speaker, the socks...
 
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Wonder if the over-ears will have ANC.
Oh I’m sure they will. The Studio3 wireless headphones already do have ACN, and if these over-ear headphones use similar technology then we can bet on it. I’m just wondering what they’ll improve on. More controls? Vastly improved battery life? Remains to be seen I guess
 
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Sounds good ~ this should open up a new market for them. I believe over ear cans are big with gamers, but it’s possible this will become a regular thing to wear when watching something on tv.

I’m sure there will be iterations of the HomePod soon too ~ maybe less expensive, but certainly one that works via Bluetooth, works on a battery, etc. Looking forward to these products.
 
the stupid Hi Fi speaker

The iPod Hi-Fi was actually a great product. I know someone who STILL has one, and STILL uses it to play music in one of his rooms. He uses it with an Airport Express (also RIP) and the line input, so he can AirPlay to it just as if it were any other AirPlay speaker.

Rather than kill it off, Apple should have continued to improve it, adding Bluetooth and/or AirPlay support and letting it evolve into what became the HomePod, rather than spend so many years without a product in this space.
 
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Looking forward to the Beats Studio over-ear headphones.
I purchased the Beats Solo Pro (on-ear) over the Bose and Sony's since its easily switches between 3 Apple devices and one other device. The noise cancellation is good but I hope the new Studio's will be improved.

I recently (well, a few months back now) purchased the Studio 3s on sale as well, for exactly the same reason. The ANC is good, although not stellar, but the easy switching between devices (I have two computers and a phone I regularly switch between, and having to "disconnect" a BT headset from wherever it is now before "connecting" to the next one gets really old really fast) makes up for all their faults and was why I ignored the Sony MX3's at a near-identical price. From an ANC perspective, these are clearly superior to the Anker Soundcode Space NCs I had before them, which in turn were worlds better than the Monoprice ANC headphones, but not quite as isolating as Sony's offering (I don't have Bose QC3s to compare with).

That said, my Airpods Pro seem to be far more effective at ANC in many environments than the Beats, so undoubtedly the "next gen" Beats Apple Studio 4 (or whatever) will have similar ANC and ear calibration.
 
I'm not a fan, but Beats has a loyal fanbase. Apple spent a TON of money to acquire the brand. I see no reason they would just drop the brand.

Thanks for this insight. I can imagine that was strong back when Apple acquired them, but is that still the case? I honestly have no knowledge of this topic so am genuinely curious. Branding can be huge.
 
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