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HP Partnership With Apple's Beats Officially Ends as HP Moves on to Bang & Olufsen
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4. 2 boxes and 2 notebooks. Motherboards on both boxes and one of the notebooks crapped out from blown capacitors, and the other notebook suffered from extreme overheating problems from doing anything other than sitting idle, even after I had taken it apart, thoroughly cleaned the fan (and the rest of the innards for that matter) and reapplied thermal paste.
Both are great cans, but the differences are personal...some like one over the other. I tell people that the P7 or the H6 are great and much better than most out there. Grado's have a fantastic sound stage, but the are open back, so they annoy those around you, and they are not comfortable for long periods of time.
You are correct about acquasitions.
Im also a senn fan, and owning some HD800s the Beats I tried, I wanted to cry for amount they charged.
Though I admit from my expertise with beats I have a biased opinion.
Though, apple might be have buyers remorse ....
I know enough about business not to be obtuse enough to speak in absolutes when talking about buying a business.
B&O stock is low because their business is in serious decline. Their products aren't selling. They're losing money yearly. They are looking to be sold to one of their competitors. If I am Apple I could say, "Hey they could be bought on the cheap." Then I say, "Hold up, what exactly would I be buying?"
On the negative side I would be buying a company with: slow moving inventory, expensive niche inventory, very small market share, negative profit, and only 1 out of 5 lines of their product aligns with our business. On the plus side, they do have a great reputation and they make great products. Not many buy those products though. Outside of their reputation, there is little value add. Clearly
You really don't understand this at all do you. Aquisitions are typically done for one of two reasons: 1. To buy a profitable business which you intend to maintain as a seperate identity. 2. To buy a business for its patents, product and design expertise, hightly qualified people, etc which you intend to incorporate into the main business.
Look at what Apple has done with its past aquisitions: every one of them has been incorporated into the main business and ceased to exist as a seperate entity. Apple is not buying these companies for their sales, they are buying them for their technology, people, expertise, patents, experience, etc. That's why B&O would be a good fit. Nobody gives a **** about their slow moving inventory or poor sales - Apple would just right that off, close the business and incorporate the expertise into Apple's own business teams.
Buying Beats gives them very little. They could continue to sell the Beats kit but the sales and profits derived would be a drop in the ocean for Apple. They could buy them to gain a little "street cred" but that will soon disipate once Apple incorporates the Beats business into Apple. It's not even clear if the Beats name with continue in the future.
I definitely get it. It's just that, in my opinion, B&O is not a good acquisition choice. Never once did I say Apple was buying Beats for their sales exclusively. I did mention the exact same criteria you did. You seemed to only want to focus on their sales. Let's examine what B&O has to offer and I will do you the courtesy of addressing all of your points instead of one.
B&O doesn't have any inovative tech. They have been using the same industrial design for more than 3 decades. They don't have any engineering people of any regard. Their patent portfolio is woefully thin. Their experience is primarily in AV/Home Theater. So I am not sure what you see that they offer. They have a good reputation but that reputation is mostly based on form (their design) over function (class leading sound). The consensus on B&O is good sound but way too overpriced. Typically described as Bose for those with more money.
How about we agree to disagree. You think their worth it. I don't.
A lot of people seem to like Beats headphones, so I guess they might have some additional qualities...
Big fat artificial bass and ultra-thin notebooks really don't go well together for some odd reason.
Smart consumers will still go with ASUS over HP regardless of whether they use the same audio technology.
I doubt ASUS is worried about this cutting into their bottom line.
Beats Over B&O Yikes!!
Wow, I don't claim any expertise in marketing or music but I do know that even a casual listening test would show how the B&O would put those others to shame. Perhaps the target audience just cares for loud bass lines?
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B&O doesn't have any inovative tech. They have been using the same industrial design for more than 3 decades. They don't have any engineering people of any regard. Their patent portfolio is woefully thin. Their experience is primarily in AV/Home Theater. So I am not sure what you see that they offer. They have a good reputation but that reputation is mostly based on form (their design) over function (class leading sound). The consensus on B&O is good sound but way too overpriced. Typically described as Bose for those with more money.
How about we agree to disagree. You think their worth it. I don't
Howdy Mustang, first off in the misspent days of my youth I had a 1969 Mach I Mustang, 351, 4 speed, 8 track stereo (yikes!) etc. Great car, lotsa good memories involving it and some of the goings on that took place in it
Anyway, I have a B&O Beolit 12, it's a portable sound box that uses Apple Play. I've had it since 2012 and when people hear it for the first time they are amazed and convinced that there are additional speakers & amps contributing to the sound. For me the beats isn't in the same league. Not wanting to start a brawl here, but just my old and grey .02
Wow, I don't claim any expertise in marketing or music but I do know that even a casual listening test would show how the B&O would put those others to shame. Perhaps the target audience just cares for loud bass lines?
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B&O doesn't have any inovative tech. They have been using the same industrial design for more than 3 decades. They don't have any engineering people of any regard. Their patent portfolio is woefully thin. Their experience is primarily in AV/Home Theater. So I am not sure what you see that they offer. They have a good reputation but that reputation is mostly based on form (their design) over function (class leading sound). The consensus on B&O is good sound but way too overpriced. Typically described as Bose for those with more money.
How about we agree to disagree. You think their worth it. I don't
Howdy Mustang, first off in the misspent days of my youth I had a 1969 Mach I Mustang, 351, 4 speed, 8 track stereo (yikes!) etc. Great car, lotsa good memories involving it and some of the goings on that took place in it
Anyway, I have a B&O Beolit 12, it's a portable sound box that uses Apple Play. I've had it since 2012 and when people hear it for the first time they are amazed and convinced that there are additional speakers & amps contributing to the sound. For me the beats isn't in the same league. Not wanting to start a brawl here, but just my old and grey .02
I have to disagree, as I've found that the original B&O products were expensive, but were also very bleeding edge in design and quality. Now, maybe their current stuff doesn't work well, but it's my belief B&O built their success (when they had it) on well made product.
I wish I still had my B&O linear arm turntable from the 80's.
I never really liked my Beogram turntable, I sold it and bought a cheaper Thorens deck that sounded much better to my ears.
There's no questioning that B&O had bleeding edge design and even some rather cool tech, but in my experience the performance and reliability was sub par for the price. Their stuff was good, but not that good.
It's probably unfair to compare them with Beats directly, but they both certainly managed to sell products for far more than their performance was worth.
Well I would have preferred Apple pair with B&O rather that Beats.
But Beats was a successful, well known entity preforming very well- despite the fact their products are mostly crap. B&O, while making fantastic products, are probably not as well known but the billions 17 year olds buying the Beats products.
I think B&O may be devaluing their brand a little bit joining with HP. I guess it depends though, if they slap the name on 99% of their computers- then it will be a joke. If the reserve the name for their high end computers and actually pull off decent sounding laptop speakers, the great.
But Beats was a successful, well known entity preforming very well- despite the fact their products are mostly crap. B&O, while making fantastic products, are probably not as well known but the billions 17 year olds buying the Beats products.
I think B&O may be devaluing their brand a little bit joining with HP. I guess it depends though, if they slap the name on 99% of their computers- then it will be a joke. If the reserve the name for their high end computers and actually pull off decent sounding laptop speakers, the great.
This is less about target audience and more about the idea of Apple purchasing B&O vs purchasing Beats.
I have a 69 coupe resto-mod; mainly for autocross and weekends. Love it. I want to do another project car but I have to save up the cash and get permission from my wife.Howdy Mustang, first off in the misspent days of my youth I had a 1969 Mach I Mustang, 351, 4 speed, 8 track stereo (yikes!) etc. Great car, lotsa good memories involving it and some of the goings on that took place in it
Trust me, you're not starting a brawl. However, you are talking about the sound of B&O v. Beats. I've never listened to either so I can't comment either way. That's not really the topic we were discussing, more of which company would be a better buy.Anyway, I have a B&O Beolit 12, it's a portable sound box that uses Apple Play. I've had it since 2012 and when people hear it for the first time they are amazed and convinced that there are additional speakers & amps contributing to the sound. For me the beats isn't in the same league. Not wanting to start a brawl here, but just my old and grey .02
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I think the HP deal is a win/win for both companies. HP gets the brand recognition and B&O gets the desperately needed cash.