If remotely about the speakers, this is a rebuke of Jony Ive and his direct control over Apple's industrial design. Beats are the equivalent of extra chrome and neon lights on a Ford Taurus.
Well apparently the Beats hardware stuff will fall under Phil Schiller's responsibility. To me that's a signal it's more about marketing/brand than anything else. Otherwise you'd have your hardware chief overseeing engineering and your design chief overseeing design. You wouldn't farm that out to your marketing head. I hope this means Ive and Riccio are very busy on other more important stuff.
Everybody has their preferred brand and trashes other’s. Beats, Bose, Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Klipsch, whatever. None of them are any better than the other, especially in the mass market universe. The big names all compromise to get something in the price range. So your denigrating comment about Beats is uncalled for.
Style-wise, Beats is not Apple. Substandard parts and engineering with a shiny casing.
In the end it's what corrupt Wall Street wants to do with Apple, if actual consumers were a factor the stock would be near $1k like The Goog. Product, Brand, or Two visionary men?none of the above, it appears Apple hit a wall in monopolizing the music industry and to increase revenue they need the hookups. Like Yahoo and Tumbler the consumers will follow...Wall Street what's your move as obvious you boys are complete idiots to the Silicon Valley industry?
OK this gets even weirder....according to an internal employee memo Cook says Phil Schiller is going to oversee the design and and engineering of Beats Electronics. I hope that's because Dan Riccio and Jony Ive have more important things to do. Still seems odd to give that roll to the head of Marketing.
Quote:
Beats Electronics has become the brand of choice for headphones and speakers in both the music and sports world, just five years after its launch. They are among the most popular and highest-rated third-party products sold today in Apple’s retail and online stores. We see an incredible opportunity to bring Apple’s legendary design and engineering capabilities to these popular products under Phil’s leadership.
Nice find.
That confirms that it was the Beats brand that they've seen value in and Phils role is to now build the brand out.
I really doubted this whole thing when the rumours first came out - but I can see some method in the madness now.
Hmmmm - I guess well have to see how it goes. Still very sceptical of the whole thing here.
Apple probably lost the "urban market" by not having big phones. But who cares? It's not a rich market nor is it important outside the US where apple are floundering.
Apple is doing fine in Asia and will always improve. Not sure what Europe is about.
I've always laughed at that "argument" as well. As if Apple doesn't have music industry connections. As if Apple didn't revolutionize the music industry as we know it.
They can get Iovine for his smarts and ingenuity. Dre for his "coolness" and marketability (particularly with athletes). But let's not fool ourselves and say it's because of their connections in the music industry. That's ignorant.
Jobs seemed to have a great deal of respect for both these guys. I think connections may be the wrong word. A better one would be relationships. Jobs provided that aspect and that can have a major impact on negotiations. That's why Beats was able to secure the licenses to stream at better terms than Apple could. Tim is very smart to recognize that dynamic when many will have no clue as to the difference.
Quote:
Beats Electronics has become the brand of choice for headphones and speakers in both the music and sports world, just five years after its launch. They are among the most popular and highest-rated third-party products sold today in Apple’s retail and online stores. We see an incredible opportunity to bring Apple’s legendary design and engineering capabilities to these popular products under Phil’s leadership.
Nice find.
That confirms that it was the Beats brand that they've seen value in and Phils role is to now build the brand out.
I really doubted this whole thing when the rumours first came out - but I can see some method in the madness now.
Hmmmm - I guess well have to see how it goes. Still very sceptical of the whole thing here.
Yep if Phil is getting it it's all about marketing/branding. Hopefully Jony Ive and Dan Riccio won't have to waste much time working on Beats hardware. I wonder what happens to the 3rd party design firm Beats was using?
Google buys robotics, self-driving cars, advanced AI that will create assistants like in movie "Her", life-extension technologies that will extend human lifespan, advanced drones/aeronautics companies that will bring internet to all parts of the world.. and Apple buys urban fashion accessories for $3 BILLION DOLLARS!
Let that sink in for a bit so you realize how completely rudderless Apple's leadership has become.
Branding is very important in the consumer marketplace. Apple and iTunes are successful in some demographics, but have failed to gain traction in others. With this acquisition Apple has confirmed that they're not happy segments of the American population avoid their brand.
Because of the importance of branding and image Apple must keep the Beats name and imaging as-is and resist the temptation to sneak a little Apple logo or "An Apple company" into the fine print. A polluted brand is worthless.
They have connections? So what? Surely Apple can get any meeting they want with any executive they want. Either the deal works for content providers or it doesn't.
Yes, Apple can get any meeting they want, but in the years since Steve died, they haven't exactly been knocking the world out with their negotiating acumen. There have been all sorts of rumors about deals with (mostly video) content providers around a potential alternative to cable, and nothing has materialized. The iOS in the Car initiative hasn't seen the kind of wholehearted adoption by major players that would have been expected a few years ago. Eddy Cue may be the details guy to put it all together once the guy with all of the charisma comes in and paints the deal in broad strokes, but he doesn't seem like he's capable of putting together those kinds of deals alone.
Jimmy wields the same sort of personal charisma that Steve did, and his rolodex in the entertainment industry is solid gold. I have no idea if this was about acquiring him vs acquiring an overhyped, overpriced line of crappy headphones, but if it was about Jimmy, there is some merit there.
It's not enough to get any meeting you want. You've got to be able to close the deal once you're in the room for it to matter.
Yep if Phil is getting it it's all about marketing/branding. Hopefully Jony Ive and Dan Riccio won't have to waste much time working on Beats hardware. I wonder what happens to the 3rd party design firm Beats was using?
It may be that they did not want to risk compromising the Apple brand itself with new product lines coming on stream over the next few years and so have decided to use another brand to launch these. / Big Fat guess
It may be that they did not want to risk compromising the Apple brand itself with new product lines coming on stream over the next few years and so have decided to use another brand to launch these. / Big Fat guess
I hope you're right. IMO Ive and Riccio have more important stuff to be working on than Beats headphones. People are buying them as they are now so just collect the revenue and profits and focus on other stuff.
I'm not completely opposed to this acquisition, even though I'm not to keen on it either. It's just the ridiculous amount of money they payed for it that bothers me (and others here apparently) this seems like it should of been a 300 million dollar purchase not a 3 billion dollar one!
Comments
So how is iTunes Match going to fit into this deal and how is Apple going to deliver higher bitrate music on the iTMS?
Lots of work to be done.
Everybody has their preferred brand and trashes other’s. Beats, Bose, Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Klipsch, whatever. None of them are any better than the other, especially in the mass market universe. The big names all compromise to get something in the price range. So your denigrating comment about Beats is uncalled for.
Style-wise, Beats is not Apple. Substandard parts and engineering with a shiny casing.
Quote:
Beats Electronics has become the brand of choice for headphones and speakers in both the music and sports world, just five years after its launch. They are among the most popular and highest-rated third-party products sold today in Apple’s retail and online stores. We see an incredible opportunity to bring Apple’s legendary design and engineering capabilities to these popular products under Phil’s leadership.
Nice find.
That confirms that it was the Beats brand that they've seen value in and Phils role is to now build the brand out.
I really doubted this whole thing when the rumours first came out - but I can see some method in the madness now.
Hmmmm - I guess well have to see how it goes. Still very sceptical of the whole thing here.
I don't get this purchase at all, but I'll wait and see what comes of it.
How is it desperation?
Apple is doing fine in Asia and will always improve. Not sure what Europe is about.
Who "confirmed" this? You? Just like your username, you're all hype, zero substance. Buzz off.
Tim Cook confirmed it! Go read his NY Times interview.
Google buys robotics, self-driving cars, advanced AI that will create assistants like in movie "Her", life-extension technologies that will extend human lifespan, advanced drones/aeronautics companies that will bring internet to all parts of the world.. and Apple buys urban fashion accessories for $3 BILLION DOLLARS!
Let that sink in for a bit so you realize how completely rudderless Apple's leadership has become.
Branding is very important in the consumer marketplace. Apple and iTunes are successful in some demographics, but have failed to gain traction in others. With this acquisition Apple has confirmed that they're not happy segments of the American population avoid their brand.
Because of the importance of branding and image Apple must keep the Beats name and imaging as-is and resist the temptation to sneak a little Apple logo or "An Apple company" into the fine print. A polluted brand is worthless.
They have connections? So what? Surely Apple can get any meeting they want with any executive they want. Either the deal works for content providers or it doesn't.
Yes, Apple can get any meeting they want, but in the years since Steve died, they haven't exactly been knocking the world out with their negotiating acumen. There have been all sorts of rumors about deals with (mostly video) content providers around a potential alternative to cable, and nothing has materialized. The iOS in the Car initiative hasn't seen the kind of wholehearted adoption by major players that would have been expected a few years ago. Eddy Cue may be the details guy to put it all together once the guy with all of the charisma comes in and paints the deal in broad strokes, but he doesn't seem like he's capable of putting together those kinds of deals alone.
Jimmy wields the same sort of personal charisma that Steve did, and his rolodex in the entertainment industry is solid gold. I have no idea if this was about acquiring him vs acquiring an overhyped, overpriced line of crappy headphones, but if it was about Jimmy, there is some merit there.
It's not enough to get any meeting you want. You've got to be able to close the deal once you're in the room for it to matter.
It may be that they did not want to risk compromising the Apple brand itself with new product lines coming on stream over the next few years and so have decided to use another brand to launch these. / Big Fat guess
Now I can assure you of one thing: Eddy Cue is leaving Apple in less than one year...
I'll take that bet. Eddie Cue to no longer be employed at Apple in any capacity on May 28th, 2015. How much?