$3.2B? I don't get this at all. What exactly does Apple get out of the deal? (1) Their brand is much stronger than Beats. (2) They could design and build high quality headphones if they wanted, the design is quite simple. And (3) if they wanted a music subscription service, they could easily create one of their own.
Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
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Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#12Does this mean we're about to get a new iPod classic? 1,702 days and counting ... [1]
Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#13"Apple is in talks to acquire Beats Electronics for about $3.2 billion, according to a person briefed on the matter."
I guess there is some disagreement about whether or not Beats is "worth" $3.2B. Such stories, on the eve of an acquisition, are always about trying to get the price raised it seems. Would be interesting if Apple walks away from the deal at this point.
Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#14If this comes to pass, I will have to agree with those who have been saying that Cook should be canned.
Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#15The article mentions only Beats Electronics. I think this acquisition becomes a lot more interesting if Beats Music is part of the deal.
Supposedly (according to Recode.net) Beats music only has around 200,000 subscribers and most of them are free trial users from a AT&T deal. Doesn't sound a like a service Apple would want.
I'm not surprised. I'm a Beats subscriber and the only thing going for it is the (actually good) human-curated playlists. However, Spotify seems to have a bigger music catalog and music discovery is good enough.
Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#16So much for Apple's appearance of being a premium brand. Beats products are junk. Until 2012, they were basically white-labeled Monster Cable products.
Yes, it's precisely about appearance. Beats head/earphones are very popular. They were also in some sort of partnership with HP (and perhaps others?) previously --- you can find many HP laptops with Beats Audio. This appears to be a selling point, so combined with the fashionable image of Beats, it makes sense that Apple would want to absorb this brand.
Also, most people aren't aware that Beats are junk. Many consumers mistake a strong bass for good audio quality (or even more shockingly, they don't care about quality, and bass is _what they want_).
Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#17I cannot figure out any way to reconcile the incredibly poor quality of Beats products with a hopeful future for Apple. Can someone make the argument for why this is a good idea?
> poor quality of Beats products
They're overpriced, certainly. But poor quality is not fair. They've got good sound, heavy bass, and the build feels solid.
EDIT: I don't actually own beats, I prefer my Sennheiser's. But my brother got a pair of Beats as a gift and I've used them.
Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#18In my eyes, this paints Apple as just another "big company" making acquisitions that don't make sense. Maybe they are going to bundle all ipods with beats...? Not sure where they are going with this unless it's for the music service licensing agreements.
Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#19So much for Apple's appearance of being a premium brand. Beats products are junk. Until 2012, they were basically white-labeled Monster Cable products.
Yes, it's precisely about appearance. Beats head/earphones are very popular. They were also in some sort of partnership with HP (and perhaps others?) previously --- you can find many HP laptops with Beats Audio. This appears to be a selling point, so combined with the fashionable image of Beats, it makes sense that Apple would want to absorb this brand. Also, most people aren't aware that Beats are junk. Many consume…
The "beats audio" in partner hardware is just software eq to filter bass and then turn it back on again. It's sheer chicanery that I am disappointed that Apple would want to associate itself with.
Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion
#20I cannot figure out any way to reconcile the incredibly poor quality of Beats products with a hopeful future for Apple. Can someone make the argument for why this is a good idea?
They are over marketed a bit and over priced, sure, but just as much as Bose, B&O and a lot of other premium sound brands.
How do they objectively have "incredibly poor quality"? Do you have a link that support they have really poor sound quality or bad build quality or horrible customer satisfaction rate?