So, Apple paid around 400 million USD for NeXT, which basically got Apple a next gen operating system, which all of their devices are now based on, including all iOS devices, and some "Beats defenders" think that it's smart to pay 3.2 Billion for a "humanized" music subscription service?
I still think that this is a terrible idea.
Well it was music that brought Apple back with the iPod and the evolution of iPod to iPhone and iPad that has made them the most valuable company on the planet. Your comment lacks perspective. Apple's market cap in 1997 was 2.3 Billion. That 400 million was actually 17.3% of their value and for a company without substantial revenue. This deal for 3.2 billion is about 0.6% of their current market cap of 500 billion. The company made half of that amount last year which was a 300% increase from the year before. This deal makes a lot more sense to me than paying billions more for a failing company who can't figure out how to get consumers to buy their stuff. (Google/Motorola, Microsoft/Nokia)
I really need great music curation. Any service can slam me into the Top-40 stuff. I want to feel as though i've got my own personal DJ on staff that knows what I like.
I understand that part about a personal DJ. personally I think Pandora sucks for brand new users who refuse to train it. It took me literally years and years of training with thumbs up and down and also logging on to the Pandora website and adding names of artists, albums, and songs I like but it paid off. I may cheat on Pandora from time to time with iTunes, iHeart, LastFM but almost always come back to Pandora in the end. I think Pandora is very accurate as long as you really give it a lot of info to train it as to what you like. The other limitation with Pandora is I don't think they have quite as generous licensing terms as some of the competitors as far as their repertoire and catalogue of music that they can play. If Pandora could play any song they wanted I think they are the best out there as far as a personal DJ.
Well it was music that brought Apple back with the iPod and the evolution of iPod to iPhone and iPad that has made them the most valuable company on the planet. Your comment lacks perspective. Apple's market cap in 1997 was 2.3 Billion. That 400 million was actually 17.3% of their value and for a company without substantial revenue. This deal for 3.2 billion is about 0.6% of their current market cap of 500 billion. The company made half of that amount last year which was a 300% increase from the year before. This deal makes a lot more sense to me than paying billions more for a failing company who can't figure out how to get consumers to buy their stuff. (Google/Motorola, Microsoft/Nokia)
The value of another company is not based on how much money the purchasing company has.
Cook hasn’t done a thing in 2 years. No new product categories, just improved old products. And now he's buying fashion accessories for audiophools for overinflated prices.
While Facebook and Google are buying up the future, Tim Cook is buying 10 year old technology and red kitsch.
With that Burburry CEO hire, maybe Apple really is moving into BS area of overpriced luxury goods that perform worse than cheaper equivalents.
LOL, Bose is the Beats for old people. Overpriced crap that relies on marketing not quality. Any and I mean any audiophile site will confirm that. Companies like Sennheiser make quality products and also have a lot of IP protecting that. It seems Beats only has design type patents which are useless as trends change. All they did was use cheap Chinese OEM phones and added some bass and a big marketing campaign.
But that's exactly the point. Stand around in and big box store and you'll see older person after older person with their money out with the already burned in notion that Bose is the best. It's genius.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gwmac
Beats were also valued at only around $1B less than a year ago. What happened in the last 12 months to add another $2B?
Iovine is this decade's master of the Reality Distortion field.
Cook hasn’t done a thing in 2 years. No new product categories, just improved old products. And now he's buying fashion accessories for audiophools for overinflated prices.
While Facebook and Google are buying up the future, Tim Cook is buying 10 year old technology and red kitsch.
With that Burburry CEO hire, maybe Apple really is moving into BS area of overpriced luxury goods that perform worse than cheaper equivalents.
Even if Forstall was the genius you think he was (I am not sure I agree with that) he was by all accounts a complete ass that was despised by pretty much everyone else at Apple. How long do you think Apple could have prospered once his acrimonious style of leadership ran away all the senior management like Ive and many others that refused to work with him? Steve was also a bully at times but balanced that with charm, charisma, and a magnetism Forestall lacked. I don't miss faux pine bookcases and ugly green baize for my Apple apps.
If this is true, Apple has become Google or FaceBook. $3B wasted on crappy, phony (no pun intended,) least common denominator branding bull 5h12. I'll need to reconsider my long term holdings of Apple stock.
Cook hasn’t done a thing in 2 years. No new product categories, just improved old products.
No new product categories in 2 whole years? OMG! What an awful CEO¡ He's right up there with Steve Jobs who also didn't create a new product category every 2 years.
Cook hasn’t done a thing in 2 years. No new product categories, just improved old products. And now he's buying fashion accessories for audiophools for overinflated prices.
While Facebook and Google are buying up the future, Tim Cook is buying 10 year old technology and red kitsch.
With that Burburry CEO hire, maybe Apple really is moving into BS area of overpriced luxury goods that perform worse than cheaper equivalents.
Say what you want about Burberry, but Ahrendts is very, very smart and someone who has a deep understanding of retail. All you need do is look at what happened at Burberry during her tenure (hint: it became a much more valuable brand).
Some people will like the style, some won't. That's the way fashion works. And obviously, not everyone has $1,700 to drop on a trench coat or $180 for a pair of sunglasses. But I've never had any problem with the quality of a Burberry product. YMMV.
Even if Forstall was the genius you think he was (I am not sure I agree with that) he was by all accounts a complete ass that was despised by pretty much everyone else at Apple. How long do you think Apple could have prospered once his acrimonious style of leadership ran away all the senior management like Ive and many others that refused to work with him? Steve was also a bully at times but balanced that with charm, charisma, and a magnetism Forestall lacked. I don't miss faux pine bookcases and ugly green baize for my Apple apps.
What was so great about Forstall? iOS stagnated under his watch and he gave us the nice looking but error ridden maps application.
No new product categories in 2 whole years? OMG! What an awful CEO¡ He's right up there with Steve Jobs who also didn't create a new product category every 2 years.
Except that he did.
And actually it's every 3 years.
Hmmm… in spite of my predilection to make a joke about overpriced form-over-function products at this point, I can't see any upside for Apple in this case. I've tried many products over the years, and by far the best bud-type solution is Apple's own. Beats, as the name suggests, are typical of modern base-heavy tuning that ruins the sound quality of anything other than hip-hop (and that too, but then it's a "good thing"). Apple has enough overpriced crap in it's lineup, it doesn't need this.
It's the beginning of another of acquisitions Apple will buy that doesn't line up with Apple's past identity.
It's a bad buy because Apple doesn't need Beats. It shows Apple has become this part: Retail, advertising, marketing, and fashion based company when in reality they are selling hardware and software services.
Steve Jobs once said you can't become good at what you're doing if you become too involved in other things and not focused.
Apple has gotten rid of a lot of smart people or they left on their own and people they've hired and put in high spots are not people who are visionaries of Steve Job's original goal for the company.
I will never buy any more Apple products if they ever came with a "beats" logo on it. That's it, I would be done with Apple, and that's saying a lot, coming from me.
At least certain "Apple ][" haters on this forum would be happy, because there would be no reason for me to post here again.
Keep Calm and Allow Time for the Rumors to Die Down. Let us know if you're in real distress and we'll bring the smelling salts!
Comments
So, Apple paid around 400 million USD for NeXT, which basically got Apple a next gen operating system, which all of their devices are now based on, including all iOS devices, and some "Beats defenders" think that it's smart to pay 3.2 Billion for a "humanized" music subscription service?
I still think that this is a terrible idea.
Well it was music that brought Apple back with the iPod and the evolution of iPod to iPhone and iPad that has made them the most valuable company on the planet. Your comment lacks perspective. Apple's market cap in 1997 was 2.3 Billion. That 400 million was actually 17.3% of their value and for a company without substantial revenue. This deal for 3.2 billion is about 0.6% of their current market cap of 500 billion. The company made half of that amount last year which was a 300% increase from the year before. This deal makes a lot more sense to me than paying billions more for a failing company who can't figure out how to get consumers to buy their stuff. (Google/Motorola, Microsoft/Nokia)
From what i've read the Beasts Music curation is largely human. Whatever they've done they are ahead of the competition in quality...for now.
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/01/21/beatsmusic
I really need great music curation. Any service can slam me into the Top-40 stuff. I want to feel as though i've got my own personal DJ on staff that knows what I like.
I understand that part about a personal DJ. personally I think Pandora sucks for brand new users who refuse to train it. It took me literally years and years of training with thumbs up and down and also logging on to the Pandora website and adding names of artists, albums, and songs I like but it paid off. I may cheat on Pandora from time to time with iTunes, iHeart, LastFM but almost always come back to Pandora in the end. I think Pandora is very accurate as long as you really give it a lot of info to train it as to what you like. The other limitation with Pandora is I don't think they have quite as generous licensing terms as some of the competitors as far as their repertoire and catalogue of music that they can play. If Pandora could play any song they wanted I think they are the best out there as far as a personal DJ.
The value of another company is not based on how much money the purchasing company has.
Bring back Scott Forstall.
Cook hasn’t done a thing in 2 years. No new product categories, just improved old products. And now he's buying fashion accessories for audiophools for overinflated prices.
While Facebook and Google are buying up the future, Tim Cook is buying 10 year old technology and red kitsch.
With that Burburry CEO hire, maybe Apple really is moving into BS area of overpriced luxury goods that perform worse than cheaper equivalents.
LOL, Bose is the Beats for old people. Overpriced crap that relies on marketing not quality. Any and I mean any audiophile site will confirm that. Companies like Sennheiser make quality products and also have a lot of IP protecting that. It seems Beats only has design type patents which are useless as trends change. All they did was use cheap Chinese OEM phones and added some bass and a big marketing campaign.
But that's exactly the point. Stand around in and big box store and you'll see older person after older person with their money out with the already burned in notion that Bose is the best. It's genius.
Quote:
Beats were also valued at only around $1B less than a year ago. What happened in the last 12 months to add another $2B?
Iovine is this decade's master of the Reality Distortion field.
Cook = Ballmer
Bring back Scott Forstall.
Cook hasn’t done a thing in 2 years. No new product categories, just improved old products. And now he's buying fashion accessories for audiophools for overinflated prices.
While Facebook and Google are buying up the future, Tim Cook is buying 10 year old technology and red kitsch.
With that Burburry CEO hire, maybe Apple really is moving into BS area of overpriced luxury goods that perform worse than cheaper equivalents.
Even if Forstall was the genius you think he was (I am not sure I agree with that) he was by all accounts a complete ass that was despised by pretty much everyone else at Apple. How long do you think Apple could have prospered once his acrimonious style of leadership ran away all the senior management like Ive and many others that refused to work with him? Steve was also a bully at times but balanced that with charm, charisma, and a magnetism Forestall lacked. I don't miss faux pine bookcases and ugly green baize for my Apple apps.
Their industrial design wasn't even done in-house.
No new product categories in 2 whole years? OMG! What an awful CEO¡ He's right up there with Steve Jobs who also didn't create a new product category every 2 years.
Cook = Ballmer
Bring back Scott Forstall.
Cook hasn’t done a thing in 2 years. No new product categories, just improved old products. And now he's buying fashion accessories for audiophools for overinflated prices.
While Facebook and Google are buying up the future, Tim Cook is buying 10 year old technology and red kitsch.
With that Burburry CEO hire, maybe Apple really is moving into BS area of overpriced luxury goods that perform worse than cheaper equivalents.
Say what you want about Burberry, but Ahrendts is very, very smart and someone who has a deep understanding of retail. All you need do is look at what happened at Burberry during her tenure (hint: it became a much more valuable brand).
Some people will like the style, some won't. That's the way fashion works. And obviously, not everyone has $1,700 to drop on a trench coat or $180 for a pair of sunglasses. But I've never had any problem with the quality of a Burberry product. YMMV.
What was so great about Forstall? iOS stagnated under his watch and he gave us the nice looking but error ridden maps application.
Nothing was great about him which is my point.
Nothing was great about him which is my point.
Yep.
Except that he did.
And actually it's every 3 years.
Hmmm… in spite of my predilection to make a joke about overpriced form-over-function products at this point, I can't see any upside for Apple in this case. I've tried many products over the years, and by far the best bud-type solution is Apple's own. Beats, as the name suggests, are typical of modern base-heavy tuning that ruins the sound quality of anything other than hip-hop (and that too, but then it's a "good thing"). Apple has enough overpriced crap in it's lineup, it doesn't need this.
So NOT every 2 years? You can't even keep you lie straight with a less than 10 word response. Shameful.
And that 3 year difference between the iOS-based iPhone and iOS-based iPad was only ONCE, NOT the very 3 year occurrence you have claimed.
It's a bad buy because Apple doesn't need Beats. It shows Apple has become this part: Retail, advertising, marketing, and fashion based company when in reality they are selling hardware and software services.
Steve Jobs once said you can't become good at what you're doing if you become too involved in other things and not focused.
Apple has gotten rid of a lot of smart people or they left on their own and people they've hired and put in high spots are not people who are visionaries of Steve Job's original goal for the company.
Never follow..
I will never buy any more Apple products if they ever came with a "beats" logo on it. That's it, I would be done with Apple, and that's saying a lot, coming from me.
At least certain "Apple ][" haters on this forum would be happy, because there would be no reason for me to post here again.
Keep Calm and Allow Time for the Rumors to Die Down. Let us know if you're in real distress and we'll bring the smelling salts!