Reports: Apple set to acquire headphone maker Beats

[silvarios]

The Grim Ninja wrote:
If Apple only bought them for the subscription service, perhaps they'll sell the headphones to someone else.

I doubt Beats paid $3.2 billion for MOG. I think Pandora is only valued a bit more than this rumored price. $5 billion or so. Is the Beats streaming service that great compared to Spotify, Pandora, etc?

[silvarios]

I think the match is perfect. Let's be honest, Apple has increasingly become a fashion brand. Does the average iPhone user have a truly sophisticated opinion of why they bought such a device over a similar alternative? On the flip side, does the average Galaxy S4 or S5 feel any differently? probably not.

Beats seems to target a similar demographic, young, image conscious buyers, willingly to pay a healthy premium for the logo.

[silvarios]

vision63 wrote:
$$$$, that's why. It's "all" about money. Nothing else. Not even a little bit else. Not even a scintilla, fragment else. Beats by Dre, prints money.

Yep. Money. Premium pricing for the logo. Hand in glove.

[Racer X]

bottom line, if you care about audio quality, listening to an .mp3 is a joke. My partner's co-worker was raving about the $400 'phones he bought to listen to the music on his cellphone with.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't fix stupid.

[datbeme]

But it never was about sound quality but the power and influence that is still alive and well in the music industry.

This article is pretty interesting…if for no other reason than that it actually makes me feel a little sorry for Monster.

http://gizmodo.com/5981823/beat-by-dre-t...-the-world

[M A V I C]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=jdc]
Is it bad (or wrong?) that I only associate beats with thugs and hoodlums?

edit: the photo gizmodo used:
Yes, it is wrong. Do you have a definition of thugs and hoodlum that fits the actual dictionary text, or do you simply mean a specific type of young man?

hood·lum
noun
a person who engages in crime and violence; a hooligan or gangster.

^^True of many pro athletes & musicians.

thug
noun
1. a violent person, especially a criminal.

^^Also of many pro athletes & musicians.

Ever listen to the lyrics of a song by Dre?

But I think we're mainly talking about fashion.

[Will Collier]

Last time I owned a giant pair of headphones was the 70's. I don't think that's a style which should have come back...

[JoeM]

Perfectly suitable for what would be termed todays "popular music" and the trends that go along with it and perfectly suited for Apple, who is one of the leading purveyors of many of those trends.

But what I really wanna know is how many Beats are going to be bought by those who buy Pono. miley-signs003:

[jdc]

Stockholders not lovin it. Down almost $8.

[DeusxMac]

(Posted this elsewhere before I saw this thread.)

I wonder about the outcome of a non-Apple branded product being integrated into the "Mac" "i-whathaveyou" product lineup.

Will it remain "Beats" or will it get renamed somehow: "Beats by Apple" "iBeats" "iSounds" etc.?

Has Apple ever purchased an outside retail hardware product manufacturer and kept the products original name/brand?