Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 351 posts

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#191

Post by dublinben »

rickyc091 wrote: post #76
SDGT wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> reinvented the higher-end headphone market. Rebranded mid-range electronics with pop star endorsements and hype. Do people really consider Beats to be high end?

Yes, Beats is considered to be "high end." Beats are seen as a symbol as status for kids. Owning a pair makes you "cool." It's similar to how many kids want an iPhone or a pair of Jordans.

>Beats are seen as a symbol as status for kids

This might have been true five years ago, but it's not very accurate any more. Beats have come and gone as a fashion piece.

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#192

Post by nerfhammer »

lmg643 wrote: post #82
gareim wrote: post #25

Apple redefined the mp3 player market, the ultraportable laptop market, the smartphone market, the tablet market, and now they're buying a company that reinvented the higher-end headphone market. Is it smart of a brand that has traditionally created their own iconic images to buy another cultural icon for $3 billion? I don't think so. Maybe this gets used a lot, but would Steve Jobs have done this? Or would he have c…

I totally agree. The question I ask is whether Beats is the kind of headphone that Steve Jobs would personally design and use. The "steve" test seems to guide everything else they build, so why not extend to headphones. The way I see it, the answer seems to be "no." The headphones are bulky, the logo gaudy - just not Steve. The advertising - think of the superbowl ads that rankled Seattle fans - just not really Apple…

Even if beats isn't his aesthetic, I find it difficult to imagine Steve being able to stomach a lower quality product underneath.

Jobs would have wanted products perhaps like Bose - expensive, overpriced but ultimately good quality underneath. Beats is lower middle quality underneath all the plastic and Jobs wouldn't be able to sleep at night if he thought anything lower middle quality ever shipped out of his factories.

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#194

Post by lloeki »

smackfu wrote: post #84
jotm wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really true - Sony and Sennheiser (as well as AKG and other less known companies) had the market covered already.

I think the idea is that Beats expanded the market for $200-400 headphones. Yes, Sony sold headphones in that range, but they didn't sell them to every high school student who wanted to look cool.

No, at that price they sold to professionals and audiophiles who wanted the sound to actually sound properly, not muddy bass overflowing the mids and highs.

Apple definitely bought the brand, not the headphone tech. Otherwise with such a cash stash they would have bought any of Beyerdynamic, Grado, Sennheiser, or the newer entries to headphones like Marshall (the Major is so-so but the Monitor is awesome)

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#195

Post by larrys »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #119
abalone wrote: post #70

The most interesting reveal from Tim Cook's quote is that he only mentions the music service and the talent, not the headphones. That's super interesting. It basically means Apple looked at this like a typical Apple aquihire / component technology purchase (of the service), that just happened to have a multi-billion dollar profitable accessories business attached to it. That makes it a very unique kind of deal.

Wild hypothesis. Amazon started as a book distributor. Now it is fighting to become a publisher. iTunes + iPod started as a music distributor. What if it now has ambitions as a label? How would one build that out of Cupertino? One would start with a fringe, fragmented genre, to serve as a beachhead. Fragmented by not flat - there should be a node near the top of a hierarchy which can be acquired and leveraged. $1.3 b…

I'm wondering if there is more here than meets the eye. The purchase price seems actually pretty reasonable at least by today's valuation standards. Do we know what the profitability is on the current sales?

Wikipedia on this seems to indicate that the popularity is being drive by product placement and branding deals as opposed to actual product quality (which, while high may not be enough ib its own to even justify the "reasonable" valuation. (Also Nike has been quite successful long term with this practice).

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#196

Post by keehun »

asimpletune wrote: post #161

I just want to go on record with an entirely different idea as to why Apple is buying beats. They're going to make a label. Why Apple doesn't do streaming: Apple hates committing to something unless it's absolutely perfect. There are numerous examples, but NFC technology is a good one that comes to mind. Granted, they've made mistakes, like Mobile Me, but that was due to poor implementation, rather than immature tech…

This is great. Too bad "Apple Records" is already taken......

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#198

Post by callmeed »

Honest question: is there a statute of limitations on what the tech world will tolerate with regards to misogynistic behavior (or bad behavior in general)? Or do people just pick and choose what they want to fight?

I ask because everyone rallied behind RadiumOne's CEO being canned after he beat up his girlfriend [0]. Similar with the Mozilla CEO (granted, the offense was different ... but it's interesting to point out that his transgression happened 6 years ago).

But now Dr Dre is about to become an executive at the largest tech company in the world and people seem to be lauding the move despite the fact of (A) misogyny in his lyrics since his NWA days and [1] (B) him beating the crap out of a female reporter, doing probation and settling a civil suit out of court [2].

Am I comparing apples and oranges here? (pun intended!)

[0] http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/27/ceo-gurbaksh-chahal-fired-f...

EDIT: spellling

[1] http://rapgenius.com/Dr-dre-bitches-aint-shit-lyrics

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dee_Barnes#Dr._Dre_incident

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#199

Post by Antiquarian »

graublau wrote: post #150
andrewmunsell wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curation and discovery-- they have celebrity and music curator created playlists. They also have an interesting Pandora-like radio where you can essentially select a mood and it'll build a playlist for you.

I think all streaming services have a form of this, heck even iTunes store has celebrity curated and Genius.

> all streaming services have a form of this ... Quality differs.

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#200

Post by coherentpony »

abalone wrote: post #70

The most interesting reveal from Tim Cook's quote is that he only mentions the music service and the talent, not the headphones. That's super interesting. It basically means Apple looked at this like a typical Apple aquihire / component technology purchase (of the service), that just happened to have a multi-billion dollar profitable accessories business attached to it. That makes it a very unique kind of deal.

Lack of evidence does not imply lack of existence. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Post reply on HN