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Looks by Dr. Dre

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Re: Looks by Dr. Dre

#2

Post by tptacek »

The more closely you look at Beats, the more they make sense as a serious asset to a consumer electronics company, and the less plausible the "Apple just needed to get a streaming service off the ground" story is.

Two more angles to consider:

* Owning Beats puts Apple hardware on the heads of a huge fraction of every mobile user, whether they use iOS or not. Having a Beats brand affinity for those users makes it easier to introduce new products to them.

* Owning Beats gives Apple access to Beats sales channels; whatever retail real estate Beats has is now controlled by Apple.

Re: Looks by Dr. Dre

#3

Post by jaynos »

I find it hard to believe that apple couldn't make additional colors if they wanted. I don't think it's a lack of technological know how. They could pick that up without acquiring a entire additional company.

Limited colors on the iphone or ipod make sense. For the most part, it's an item that stays in your pocket. I'm sure some people care about additional design choices, but most people solve this by buying a case (which they'd do anyway).

Beats, due to the fact that they are headphones, are worn as head gear. Yes, they could have stuck with a few simple colors, but it's easier to justify lots of options when people will actually see your user wearing the product. This gives your user an incentive to want a more unique design and be willing to pay for it.

Re: Looks by Dr. Dre

#4

Post by bwy »

jaynos wrote: post #3

I find it hard to believe that apple couldn't make additional colors if they wanted. I don't think it's a lack of technological know how. They could pick that up without acquiring a entire additional company. Limited colors on the iphone or ipod make sense. For the most part, it's an item that stays in your pocket. I'm sure some people care about additional design choices, but most people solve this by buying a case…

I have to agree somewhat with this comment. In particular, is handling 60 SKU's really a huge problem with technology and management nowadays?

It's a pity there's so much focus on small details like that and the color selection, because that's really not the main point, which the article does touch on - the two companies understand and heavily influence the consumer market and fashion, so the partnership makes sense. It's that simple.

By the way, Apple was the one who made the single-look product cool, with the iPhone. It's so cool that its own colorful 5C isn't selling very well (by its standards, of course) [1]. Restricting its color choices was not only because of the difficulty in doing so, it was a deliberate design choice. [Edit, based on parent comment: And getting people to buy overpriced cases to customize instead? Genius!]

1. Google "iPhone 5C sales". Observe articles calling it, e.g., "Failure Flop" and "dismal."

Re: Looks by Dr. Dre

#9

Post by clay_to_n »

There's this narrative that Apple's lack of design choice has helped them, by keeping things consistent. White headphones were, for a while, almost exclusively iPod earbuds. If you saw someone rocking a white headphone cable, you knew what was in their pocket. They've branched out a little, with colors for select devices, but for the most part their visual choices are very limited.

Beats seems like they've done an excellent job of offering a wide selection while still keeping brand consistency and recognizability. In this regard, I think the article's speculation makes sense.

Re: Looks by Dr. Dre

#10

Post by dropbear »

Not necessarily related to this article, but does anyone know how much money the "Beats Audio" partnerships with things like HP laptops and HTC phones bring in for the Beats brand? Seems like a good hedge in the laptop and smartphone markets where Apple wins regardless of whether consumers buy iPhones or competing devices that are "Powered by Beats" or whatever they call it.
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