Jimmy Iovine commented on the sound quality of Beats. Typically reviewers merit headphones on sound reproduction, which is understandable but they were aiming to make the audio sound good:
"It just came down to whether we liked the sound. We didn’t test anything with an oscilloscope. A lot of it was musician tested. I have a lot of people coming into my office–Bono and Edge were a big part of it. We asked people, “Is this what your music sounded like when you recorded it in the studio?” and we kept working on in until they said yes.
We worked with a manufacturer that had never made headphones before–Monster. We wanted a manufacturer that didn’t have preconceived ideas about what a headphone should be. Most headphones have the same “curve,” which is tuned for classical music. And we brought a sense of fashion to it, too. Most headphones look like medical devices. Who would want to put that on their head?"
The lead designer for Beats was Robert Brunner from Ammunition, Jony Ive's previous boss at Apple. He would have designed the old Pismo Powerbook G3s. Jony Ive took over around the late 90s and you can see the design shift to the iBooks and titanium G4 powerbooks later on.
Beats has captured over 50% of the premium headphone market so it clearly has a strong appeal. I don't see a reason to get rid of the headphone line as that just hands over that huge market to a competitor but hiring strong candidates in their respective fields is a good strategy. A lot of the current Apple leads are getting nearer retirement. Eddy Cue has been at Apple for 25 years:
Dre and Iovine don't have to replace him entirely but they can have some lead in the direction of iTunes to take some weight off Eddy Cue. They are ideal candidates to direct the world's leading online music retail outlet.
I'm pretty sure they were set for life beforehand. Their company had over $1b in revenue. It also may not be in cash but stock that they have to wait to cash in like Angela Ahrendts.
Good post, thanks. On the headphones, the single most salient fact is that they got it to be acceptable and desirable to wear headphones out in the world. No "straight " headphone has accomplished that, no matter how much better they sound. It's about the next step in wearables, in my opinion. The bass-heavy sound is necessary because it provides a tactile atmosphere, which is part of the urban armor that the "music" projects.
The hundreds of positive reviews however simply say that they look great and sound great and people are happy with them. A lot of the positive reviews seem to come from people using them for everyday music. The negative reviews come more from people looking for the most accurate sound reproduction.
Just curious.
Which of these two attributes would you say is most closely aligned with Apple products?
What is it about AI that every act of Cook ( who is not Apple) is defended with meaningless contentless arguments.
If this went ahead and nothing came of it - why Iovine could get more content than Apple is beyond me ( plus the right to music have to be negotiated worldwide not just in the US) -and either of these two buffoons make a laughing stock of Apple which is likely then Cook will be removed by the board.
He's clearly floundering to me. No idea what to do with the cash flow, stock buy backs are just throwing a bone to the market, and the new products "throughout" 2014 are nothing more than vapourware so far. It looks like a new iPhone. That's it. Maybe a new iPad. The Apple TV seems dead. If they get into wearables it will be next year at the earliest.
Cook has little vision. I have no idea who could run Apple, but it shows how most companies flounder in the abscence of their founders.
Because the critics of Cook are idiots with weak arguments and made up "shortcomings".
Google's buying amazing AI (DeepMind), amazing robotics (Boston Dynamics & half a dozen other advanced robotics companies in US and Japan), connected home automation and hardware (Nest) and on the other end, Facebook is buying AI, communications and messaging companies.
What is Cook buying? Urban fashion and bling bling sapphire glass. Oh, and he hired Burberry CEO to run Apple stores with hope she turns them into luxury-like stores.
My iPhone still can't do real-time translation, Siri still sucks when compared to what Google and MS are offering and Maps are still worse than the competition (even a lot more worse if you're not in the US). But T.Diddy doesn't care about that. He is blinging out iPhones and is paying little intention to what you can actually do with these things. I hope that in the future my iPhone won't be just a pretty ornament and a status symbol that can't do much other than look amazing.
Tim Cook = Steve (not Jobs).. but the other Steve… Steve Ballmer.
Troll complaint. Apple has purchased 20 or so companies in the last year. Apple doesn't have to brag about purchases nor are they required to report them if they are monetarily insignificant. However Apple always purchases companies that fit its strategy. That's smart buying.
Ive is good at hardware, not particularly good at UI design, and is not leading any innovation as far as I've seen or read. He is a designer. He doesn't manage the software or decide what happens on the hardware front with new devices. He just makes whatever is decided elsewhere, pretty.
Dumbest post of the thread. If you think design is just making things look pretty, go back to your day job of serving fries with Big Macs.
You know you can put me on ignore if my "trolling" bothers you so much. But I'm sure if I was posting here about how great this is and how genius Tim Cook is nobody would be complaining or calling it trollish behavior. :rolleyes:
Because that's closer to the truth than troll critics.
No, what's sad is your incessant, obnoxious, self-congratulatory, mocking, ignorant, and downright nasty posts about something that is not even confirmed- and even if it was, you're utterly ignorant to the reason, motivations, and details of such a deal. You've made hundreds of comments about something that has been rumoured, and that nobody has any real specific or knowledge on. You're too damn narcissistic, vain, and trollish to at least wait until things are confirmed with some basic details, in order to give such conclusive and loud-mouthed opinions. Amazing that with all Apple has accomplished, with all the time their doubters have been wrong there's still people like you- who never, ever give them the benefit of the doubt and always assume the WORST case scenario- as if Apple has no clue what it's doing. Maybe you can hold your tongue until we know something real? You've given your obnoxiously ignorant take on this a million times already, and looks like there's no end in sight. You can't even imagine the possibility that Apple might know what it's doing. No, of course not- its the trolls like you that always know-all.
You are basically trying to curtail debate, and the problem isn't Apple, it's the present management. The more Cook messes up the more he needs to get scrutinised. Where are the products throughout 2014?
If Steve Ballmer made this deal during his tenure the howls of laughter here would be undrownable.
Plenty of Apple fans on the internet - Gruber for instance - are utterly confused by this. Some are hostile. Even DED is keeping his powder dry.
You are basically trying to curtail debate, and the problem isn't Apple, it's the present management. The more Cook messes up the more he needs to get scrutinised. Where are the products throughout 2014?
If Steve Ballmer made this deal during his tenure the howls of laughter here would be undrownable.
Plenty of Apple fans on the internet - Gruber for instance - are utterly confused by this. Some are hostile. Even DED is keeping his powder dry.
What are Cook's mess ups?
Happy new year! I did not realize 2014 ended in May.
Which of these two attributes would you say is most closely aligned with Apple products?
1. Good enough for every day use.
2. Most accurate.
They typically put people first and focus on the experience rather than the hardware spec. Their professional displays don't rank the highest in quality. I don't think anyone would rank their Earpods amongst the best earbuds.
When talking about accuracy, it's important to consider what the reference is. Are 'accurate' or balanced headphones good at reproducing the sound you hear from a live orchestra, music gig or soundbooth in a recording studio? If they are balanced then they have less weight to the audio. When you hear music live, you can feel the music through the floor. Even with vocal-heavy high-treble audio, if there's a powerful enough delivery, you feel it from more places than your ears.
The way you worded the question is to suggest that the choice is accurate=best quality vs everyday use=average quality. If balanced headphones make everyday music sound weak then some would consider them to be lower quality.
I would expect Apple to aim for the best all-round experience. This would be trying to deliver the strongest audio where possible so the audience can feel the music but without affecting the clarity too harshly.
You are basically trying to curtail debate, and the problem isn't Apple, it's the present management. The more Cook messes up the more he needs to get scrutinised. Where are the products throughout 2014?
If Steve Ballmer made this deal during his tenure the howls of laughter here would be undrownable.
Plenty of Apple fans on the internet - Gruber for instance - are utterly confused by this. Some are hostile. Even DED is keeping his powder dry.
And your proof that this is even happening is… what, exactly?
The way you worded the question is to suggest that the choice is accurate=best quality vs everyday use=average quality. If balanced headphones make everyday music sound weak then some would consider them to be lower quality.
That's exactly what I am suggesting.
Personally, I don't consider Beats quality to be even close to the quality of Apple's products.
Personally, I don't consider Beats quality to be even close to the quality of Apple's products.
The ideal then would be for Apple to increase the quality of Beats products while building on the established userbase (50%+ premium headphone market).
Scrap the Shuffle, Nano and Classic, put a Shuffle into the Beats Solo for $99-149, 60 hour battery life. Make a higher-end version Studio model with better drivers, more internal storage around $199-299.
There could be one specific to running with buds but battery life would be lower.
Controls would be on the sides and it would just scroll through the letter reading them out. Double-tap phones to shuffle.
They can keep the iPod Touch going as that's the only iPod worth continuing but I'd rather see that changed to an entry-level iPhone. iPhones could control and send tracks to the headphones wirelessly but not stream them so as not to wear down the headphone batteries.
Tim Cook once said that he will never hire a "VP of innovation" because doing so would mean there was a problem at Apple. Well, what do you think he's doing with his recent hires? He is offloading the task of ideation to others and managing the scene. I am a little conflicted about how I feel about this, but then again, Cook's strengths are managerial and not creative. He is not a visionary. Maybe this is what Apple has needed.
I'm wondering what the reaction is going to be at WWDC if they drag these two on stage. It could go one of three ways. 1. Cheers, 2. Boos or 3. No response.
This ought to be interesting. I think Cook has lost his mind on this one.
With luck, it looks as though there was a deal, but the dreadful Dre video scuppered it.
Comments
Good post, thanks. On the headphones, the single most salient fact is that they got it to be acceptable and desirable to wear headphones out in the world. No "straight " headphone has accomplished that, no matter how much better they sound. It's about the next step in wearables, in my opinion. The bass-heavy sound is necessary because it provides a tactile atmosphere, which is part of the urban armor that the "music" projects.
The hundreds of positive reviews however simply say that they look great and sound great and people are happy with them. A lot of the positive reviews seem to come from people using them for everyday music. The negative reviews come more from people looking for the most accurate sound reproduction.
Just curious.
Which of these two attributes would you say is most closely aligned with Apple products?
1. Good enough for every day use.
2. Most accurate.
Because the critics of Cook are idiots with weak arguments and made up "shortcomings".
Troll complaint. Apple has purchased 20 or so companies in the last year. Apple doesn't have to brag about purchases nor are they required to report them if they are monetarily insignificant. However Apple always purchases companies that fit its strategy. That's smart buying.
Dumbest post of the thread. If you think design is just making things look pretty, go back to your day job of serving fries with Big Macs.
Because that's closer to the truth than troll critics.
"Sad".
No, what's sad is your incessant, obnoxious, self-congratulatory, mocking, ignorant, and downright nasty posts about something that is not even confirmed- and even if it was, you're utterly ignorant to the reason, motivations, and details of such a deal. You've made hundreds of comments about something that has been rumoured, and that nobody has any real specific or knowledge on. You're too damn narcissistic, vain, and trollish to at least wait until things are confirmed with some basic details, in order to give such conclusive and loud-mouthed opinions. Amazing that with all Apple has accomplished, with all the time their doubters have been wrong there's still people like you- who never, ever give them the benefit of the doubt and always assume the WORST case scenario- as if Apple has no clue what it's doing. Maybe you can hold your tongue until we know something real? You've given your obnoxiously ignorant take on this a million times already, and looks like there's no end in sight. You can't even imagine the possibility that Apple might know what it's doing. No, of course not- its the trolls like you that always know-all.
You are basically trying to curtail debate, and the problem isn't Apple, it's the present management. The more Cook messes up the more he needs to get scrutinised. Where are the products throughout 2014?
If Steve Ballmer made this deal during his tenure the howls of laughter here would be undrownable.
Plenty of Apple fans on the internet - Gruber for instance - are utterly confused by this. Some are hostile. Even DED is keeping his powder dry.
What are Cook's mess ups?
Happy new year! I did not realize 2014 ended in May.
They typically put people first and focus on the experience rather than the hardware spec. Their professional displays don't rank the highest in quality. I don't think anyone would rank their Earpods amongst the best earbuds.
When talking about accuracy, it's important to consider what the reference is. Are 'accurate' or balanced headphones good at reproducing the sound you hear from a live orchestra, music gig or soundbooth in a recording studio? If they are balanced then they have less weight to the audio. When you hear music live, you can feel the music through the floor. Even with vocal-heavy high-treble audio, if there's a powerful enough delivery, you feel it from more places than your ears.
The way you worded the question is to suggest that the choice is accurate=best quality vs everyday use=average quality. If balanced headphones make everyday music sound weak then some would consider them to be lower quality.
I would expect Apple to aim for the best all-round experience. This would be trying to deliver the strongest audio where possible so the audience can feel the music but without affecting the clarity too harshly.
You are basically trying to curtail debate, and the problem isn't Apple, it's the present management. The more Cook messes up the more he needs to get scrutinised. Where are the products throughout 2014?
If Steve Ballmer made this deal during his tenure the howls of laughter here would be undrownable.
Plenty of Apple fans on the internet - Gruber for instance - are utterly confused by this. Some are hostile. Even DED is keeping his powder dry.
And your proof that this is even happening is… what, exactly?
The way you worded the question is to suggest that the choice is accurate=best quality vs everyday use=average quality. If balanced headphones make everyday music sound weak then some would consider them to be lower quality.
That's exactly what I am suggesting.
Personally, I don't consider Beats quality to be even close to the quality of Apple's products.
This isn't even a rumor anymore this has been a done deal for a while.
link to the press release.
nope. it's a rumor still.
The ideal then would be for Apple to increase the quality of Beats products while building on the established userbase (50%+ premium headphone market).
Scrap the Shuffle, Nano and Classic, put a Shuffle into the Beats Solo for $99-149, 60 hour battery life. Make a higher-end version Studio model with better drivers, more internal storage around $199-299.
There could be one specific to running with buds but battery life would be lower.
Controls would be on the sides and it would just scroll through the letter reading them out. Double-tap phones to shuffle.
They can keep the iPod Touch going as that's the only iPod worth continuing but I'd rather see that changed to an entry-level iPhone. iPhones could control and send tracks to the headphones wirelessly but not stream them so as not to wear down the headphone batteries.
Locked up and thrown away the key.
Iovine? Well. Dre? Misfit.
No.
With luck, it looks as though there was a deal, but the dreadful Dre video scuppered it.