I actually bought two pairs of headphones last month, an Audio Technica headphone and a nice AKG headphone, Beats doesn't interest me at all. Sound trumps fashion and trends any day of the week, if you ask for my humble opinion.
Since the Beats deal seems to be a done deal, I'm not going to bother complaining about it that much anymore, but I will say that I'm not still not crazy about it.
I also think that the IBM and Apple partnership trumps Beats, and overall, Apple is doing more right things than bad things, so I'm not mad.
Apple could always turn around and decide to buy Bose, Klipsch, Polk, Audio Research, JBL, Audio Technica and others in the future...
Personally, I think these particular accessories are subject as much to fashion trends as other consumer products.
Apple needs to have some kind of clause in the contract, that Beats is liable for all copyright infringements and any other lawsuits that might happen, relating to all Beats operations and products before the date that Apple officially buys them.
One would imagine their lawyers had taken such contingencies into account beforehand.
Hardly speakers/headphones/subwoofers are premium if you can find it at Best Buy
Perhaps your ears are better at picking up variations in deep bass sounds than mine, but I find it extremely difficult to tell apart a (decent) $400 v. $4000 subwoofer.
Apple needs to have some kind of clause in the contract, that Beats is liable for all copyright infringements and any other lawsuits that might happen, relating to all Beats operations and products before the date that Apple officially buys them.
Bose is already in another lawsuit directly with Apple. They love those deep pockets.
If they acquired their patent rights in a fair and legal manner, they shouldn't defend their intellectual property rights? Those protections help Apple but sometimes they hurt Apple.
I'm sure that Apple has a huge team of expensive lawyers representing them, so I would certainly hope so, but in my opinion, the verdict is still out as to whether this was a good buy or not, and I'm not just talking about the economics.
Neither Bose or Beats are premium.
Hardly speakers/headphones/subwoofers are premium if you can find it at Best Buy
I'm hardly the audiophile, but that's oversimplification.
The average non-audiophile, probably is fine with 10$ earbuds, and the stock-speakers that come built into their ipad/iphone/imac. People like me will spend the extra 300$ or so and build a full surround system for their most-used form of entertainment (eg TV or Computer) and will not bother with anything expensive for any other device. Audiophiles buy the expensive (and goofy looking) "surround sound" headphones to use with their Xbox, not iPads/iPhones. But the same Audiophiles have all their tracks stored as lossless, so they bought the 64GB model of the device, but store less music than someone with a 16GB running AAC tracks.
It's basically a diminishing returns thing. The models of things you get at BestBuy, are marked up 70% or so, because they know if they mark it up higher than Amazon, people will just buy it from Amazon. Meanwhile there will be more selection online but the difference between the entry level and top of the line BOSE or BEATSbyDRDRE Headphones or speakers will probably not be significant.
I personally wouldn't buy any headphones because I use the same earbuds on my Mac/PC that I use on my iPad. I have everything rigged up so I don't have to constantly switch the headphones, rather all the HDMI stuff goes to one screen, and that screen loops back through to the PC's onboard audio so I have a volume control. When I leave the house for more than a day, I take those earbuds with me. Best 30$ I ever spent on my trip through Chicago.
I'm tired of every article about Beats/Apple devolving immediately into a bash-fest about the quality of the headphones.
Folks, these were designed for a specific customer... techno/hip-hop fans who want the bass to rattle their bodies, and who are listening to music that doesn't have much harmonic complexity.
In short, if you're an audiophile, THEY WEREN'T DESIGNED FOR YOU!
Get over it and buy another brand.
If/when these become the flagship headphones for Apple, I'm sure there will be a broadening of their sonic footprint. Ain't exactly rocket science for a company with Apple's resources.
But I still think the deal was about the music service. I just subscribed after the trial period, and I'm really impressed with the catalog and the algorithms.
update: I did a quick search using the USPTO, searching for "Beats Electronics" as the assignee and searching for "suppression", "cancellation", or "reduction" and nothing came up. Just searching for Beats Electronics found 23 patents. They do have one dealing with vibration confinement. I did a search of BeatsbyDre.com and found 36 hits for cancellation. That's where I found reduction listed. I'm not a lawyer but if they actually use the words noise cancellation or technology similar to Bose, then they could really be in trouble. I doubt Bose would want to license this technology to Beats.
There is a downside for Bose as well, given that they are used to suing underfunded independent shops that don't have the resources to research prior art. Noise cancellation is a relatively straight-forward concept, and has been taught in physics classes and used for decades in numerous applications -- well before Bose entered the consumer headphone market.
Beats is a material threat to Bose because in only a few years, they've taken over the higher priced headphone market that Bose used to lead in revenue share. Bose is now trying to kneecap their most formidable competitor and take the competing headphone business down several notches.
But, I can't recall Bose ever suing a large company. And even without Apple, Beats has more than enough resources to try and find enough evidence to invalidate some of Bose's patents. Should be interesting to see if Bose is just looking for a payout, or if they are a true believer that will protect their purported intellectual property to the bitter end.
Perhaps your ears are better at picking up variations in deep bass sounds than mine, but I find it extremely difficult to tell apart a (decent) $400 v. $4000 subwoofer.
It will often come down to how large a room you want to fill, how deep you want to go, and whether you want that room filled using a larger box or a smaller box (small AND powerful subwoofers can be very expensive because they require more powerful amplification and better engineered drivers to move the same amount of air).
If the Beats headphones are using some tech that is in breach of the patents then Apple should use some other method that doesn't infringe when the beats sale is finalised. That would make Boses claims historical.
Jimmy n Dre have got plenty of cash to fight the lawsuit and pay any reparations. :-) My $0.02c
Bose has sued plenty of companies before and even the media.
Bose has sued Consumer reports, Motorola, Harman International Industries (JBL and Infinity systems) and many more.
The Consumer Reports suit was just harassment to try and force more positive coverage. Unfortunately, it worked, as CR made special accommodations for Bose in their speaker testing, which not surprisingly boosted their ratings considerably.
Didn't know about Motorola and Harman. I guess Bose now feels confident enough to take on the big boys, rather than just suing two-man shops that dare to use a century-old wave guide design for their speakers.
Didn't know about Motorola and Harman. I guess Bose now feels confident enough to take on the big boys, rather than just suing two-man shops that dare to use a century-old wave guide design for their speakers.
If you're interested in Bose lawsuits, they're listed on the Wiki page for Bose. There are quite a few lawsuits that they have been involved in.
Comments
I actually bought two pairs of headphones last month, an Audio Technica headphone and a nice AKG headphone, Beats doesn't interest me at all. Sound trumps fashion and trends any day of the week, if you ask for my humble opinion.
Since the Beats deal seems to be a done deal, I'm not going to bother complaining about it that much anymore, but I will say that I'm not still not crazy about it.
I also think that the IBM and Apple partnership trumps Beats, and overall, Apple is doing more right things than bad things, so I'm not mad.
Apple could always turn around and decide to buy Bose, Klipsch, Polk, Audio Research, JBL, Audio Technica and others in the future...
Personally, I think these particular accessories are subject as much to fashion trends as other consumer products.
Apple needs to have some kind of clause in the contract, that Beats is liable for all copyright infringements and any other lawsuits that might happen, relating to all Beats operations and products before the date that Apple officially buys them.
One would imagine their lawyers had taken such contingencies into account beforehand.
fantastic, can this trash headphone company be even more of a joke
Hardly speakers/headphones/subwoofers are premium if you can find it at Best Buy
Perhaps your ears are better at picking up variations in deep bass sounds than mine, but I find it extremely difficult to tell apart a (decent) $400 v. $4000 subwoofer.
Beats has been around for how long? They wait until Apple is in the process of buying Beats to sue?
The curious thing is that Bose didn't wait until the deal was done, if you wanted to assume the deeper-pockets rationale.
Perhaps it's that Bose wants to scotch that deal and interpose themselves in a partnership with Apple?
The acquisition will be closed before this is settled. Bose will get in those deep pockets sooner or later.
Apple needs to have some kind of clause in the contract, that Beats is liable for all copyright infringements and any other lawsuits that might happen, relating to all Beats operations and products before the date that Apple officially buys them.
Wow, I wonder if they thought of that....
Bose is already in another lawsuit directly with Apple. They love those deep pockets.
If they acquired their patent rights in a fair and legal manner, they shouldn't defend their intellectual property rights? Those protections help Apple but sometimes they hurt Apple.
Wow, I wonder if they thought of that....
I'm sure that Apple has a huge team of expensive lawyers representing them, so I would certainly hope so, but in my opinion, the verdict is still out as to whether this was a good buy or not, and I'm not just talking about the economics.
I'm hardly the audiophile, but that's oversimplification.
The average non-audiophile, probably is fine with 10$ earbuds, and the stock-speakers that come built into their ipad/iphone/imac. People like me will spend the extra 300$ or so and build a full surround system for their most-used form of entertainment (eg TV or Computer) and will not bother with anything expensive for any other device. Audiophiles buy the expensive (and goofy looking) "surround sound" headphones to use with their Xbox, not iPads/iPhones. But the same Audiophiles have all their tracks stored as lossless, so they bought the 64GB model of the device, but store less music than someone with a 16GB running AAC tracks.
It's basically a diminishing returns thing. The models of things you get at BestBuy, are marked up 70% or so, because they know if they mark it up higher than Amazon, people will just buy it from Amazon. Meanwhile there will be more selection online but the difference between the entry level and top of the line BOSE or BEATSbyDRDRE Headphones or speakers will probably not be significant.
I personally wouldn't buy any headphones because I use the same earbuds on my Mac/PC that I use on my iPad. I have everything rigged up so I don't have to constantly switch the headphones, rather all the HDMI stuff goes to one screen, and that screen loops back through to the PC's onboard audio so I have a volume control. When I leave the house for more than a day, I take those earbuds with me. Best 30$ I ever spent on my trip through Chicago.
I'm tired of every article about Beats/Apple devolving immediately into a bash-fest about the quality of the headphones.
Folks, these were designed for a specific customer... techno/hip-hop fans who want the bass to rattle their bodies, and who are listening to music that doesn't have much harmonic complexity.
In short, if you're an audiophile, THEY WEREN'T DESIGNED FOR YOU!
Get over it and buy another brand.
If/when these become the flagship headphones for Apple, I'm sure there will be a broadening of their sonic footprint. Ain't exactly rocket science for a company with Apple's resources.
But I still think the deal was about the music service. I just subscribed after the trial period, and I'm really impressed with the catalog and the algorithms.
We'll see.
update: I did a quick search using the USPTO, searching for "Beats Electronics" as the assignee and searching for "suppression", "cancellation", or "reduction" and nothing came up. Just searching for Beats Electronics found 23 patents. They do have one dealing with vibration confinement. I did a search of BeatsbyDre.com and found 36 hits for cancellation. That's where I found reduction listed. I'm not a lawyer but if they actually use the words noise cancellation or technology similar to Bose, then they could really be in trouble. I doubt Bose would want to license this technology to Beats.
There is a downside for Bose as well, given that they are used to suing underfunded independent shops that don't have the resources to research prior art. Noise cancellation is a relatively straight-forward concept, and has been taught in physics classes and used for decades in numerous applications -- well before Bose entered the consumer headphone market.
Beats is a material threat to Bose because in only a few years, they've taken over the higher priced headphone market that Bose used to lead in revenue share. Bose is now trying to kneecap their most formidable competitor and take the competing headphone business down several notches.
But, I can't recall Bose ever suing a large company. And even without Apple, Beats has more than enough resources to try and find enough evidence to invalidate some of Bose's patents. Should be interesting to see if Bose is just looking for a payout, or if they are a true believer that will protect their purported intellectual property to the bitter end.
But, I can't recall Bose ever suing a large company.
Bose has sued plenty of companies before and even the media.
Bose has sued Consumer reports, Motorola, Harman International Industries (JBL and Infinity systems) and many more.
Perhaps your ears are better at picking up variations in deep bass sounds than mine, but I find it extremely difficult to tell apart a (decent) $400 v. $4000 subwoofer.
It will often come down to how large a room you want to fill, how deep you want to go, and whether you want that room filled using a larger box or a smaller box (small AND powerful subwoofers can be very expensive because they require more powerful amplification and better engineered drivers to move the same amount of air).
Jimmy n Dre have got plenty of cash to fight the lawsuit and pay any reparations. :-)
My $0.02c
Beats has been around for how long? They wait until Apple is in the process of buying Beats to sue?
Bose has been around since 1964, I think they know a thing or two about audio, especially something as fundamental as noise cancellation.
However, this technology is so ubiquitous that it's almost like the wheels on a car. We'll see how it proceeds.
Bose has sued plenty of companies before and even the media.
Bose has sued Consumer reports, Motorola, Harman International Industries (JBL and Infinity systems) and many more.
The Consumer Reports suit was just harassment to try and force more positive coverage. Unfortunately, it worked, as CR made special accommodations for Bose in their speaker testing, which not surprisingly boosted their ratings considerably.
Didn't know about Motorola and Harman. I guess Bose now feels confident enough to take on the big boys, rather than just suing two-man shops that dare to use a century-old wave guide design for their speakers.
Didn't know about Motorola and Harman. I guess Bose now feels confident enough to take on the big boys, rather than just suing two-man shops that dare to use a century-old wave guide design for their speakers.
If you're interested in Bose lawsuits, they're listed on the Wiki page for Bose. There are quite a few lawsuits that they have been involved in.
Beats has been around for how long? They wait until Apple is in the process of buying Beats to sue?
My thoughts exactly.
Apple's lawyers will deal with them.
All these years no action.( if there is any validity to their claim to start with )
But as soon as Apple shows up Bose gets into action.
Bose: "lets see if we can deep our toes in some if apples cash? Woohaha ha "
Pathetic and a very wrong PR move !