Apple agreed to buy Beats Electronics for $3 billion, its biggest-ever acquisition, nabbing a popular line of headphones and a nascent subscription music-streaming service as the iPhone maker seeks to rev up growth. Manatt Digital Media CEO Peter Csathy and Bloomberg Businessweek’s Brad Stone speak on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Apple killed iTunes by letting its tech butt get kicked by Pandora, Spotify and YouTube. Apple has maintained its snobby attitude that it is too good for Facebook and Twitter, and has missed out terribly on the sharing aspects of social media. Analysts show that the Beats Electronics purchase is Apple trying to fix its old music business. Notice the lack of innovation and any new business. Apple squares are just using there old money (thanks to Steve Jobs). The real question is, can Apple wake up and become innovative again, while they squander away their old money.
On the plus side, Beats has a Windows app, and the expected revenue and gained cool factor is now in the Apple family. Beats Electronics is an American producer of audio products and equipment, but also operates a music streaming service, Beats Music. Beats is headquartered in Culver City, California, U.S.
Apple Inc. announced it would acquire Beats for US$3 billion in a cash and stock deal, expected to close by the end of 2014. The purchase is the largest acquisition by Apple, which was previously the $429 million acquisition of NeXT in 1996.
Beats music currently competes with Apple iTunes Radio service, and there is no word yet how the services will be integrated.
Beats is criticized as a status symbol of spoiled, rich kids — often accompanied by a muscle shirt,
Whenever u see some1 in public wearing Beats By Dre headphones, are they usually a lame tween bro, a streetwear blipster, or a spoiled rich kid wearing tons of other ‘cool’ brands?
Audiophiles have also been critical of the marketing buzzwords used by Beats Electronics to describe the “technical” aspects of their headphones. Unlike other audio companies that reveal driver diameter, frequency response, max input power, sensitivity, and impedance, Beats does not reveal the information. Investigations have shown a combination of audio equalization that boosts the low and high ends of the audio range, audio compression, and audio amplifier to drive the headphone speakers “harder”.
Beats headphones ($180 – $300) cost about twice the cost of the overpriced $80 Apple earbuds that usually break in about a year of heavy use.
This week with the opening of the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) we’ll see if there is any sign that Apple will snap out of its innovation coma.
Expectations/Predictable List
1) iOS 8
2) Connected Home
3) Mac OS X 10.10 — expect Mac OS X to look more like the iPad and iPhone iOS.
Apple is expected to unveil its next-generation operating systems today, and introduction of new bells and whistles coming to iPhone, iPad and desktop hardware in the near future.
Anyone interested in watching it live?
WWDC14 begins live at 10 a.m. PDT/ Noon CDT.
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/
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