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Apple to Acquire Beats Audio

The business wires are ablaze today with the story that Apple is acquiring Beats for $3B. Curiously, the press consensus (and pre-market reaction) is that it's a bad move for Apple, either because they're overpaying or because Beats' phones are poorly regarded (a curious stance, since Beats has 70% of the premium market). I disagree--$3B is bar change for Apple and Beats, I assume, is an exceptionally high-margin cash cow with tremendous brand cachet among consumers, if not audiophiles. I'm not personally sold on Beats streaming service, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't successful. Interesting move, in any event.
loomisjohnson
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,838 posts
 
Overall, I despise Apples products, mostly due to its closed nature and how that allows Apple to milk money from its dependent customers.

On the flip side, Apple stuff is easier to use and learn usually, so if you need that or don't mind doing things the Apple way only (and paying the premium involved at all stages as well), then well Apple is golden, as its profitability and myriads of happy followers will clearly attest to.

BTW I use my daughter's hand me down Ipod to control my Squeezebox devices. The Logitech app has bugs on Ipod. It ran quite nicely, no bugs on ANdroid tablet I had prior. Go figure!
schubert
7,386 posts
 
I see the merits, having owned both, but these days an Apple is twice as much for very little better.
My point is, though they are nearly always of the opinion they
are creative and independent, yuppies in general are the most
conformist of all groups in American society.
Even the Fox News morons has more variety in their hates than yuppies do in their likes.
4hannons's avatar
4hannons
187 posts
 
Yuppie? Are we back in the 1980's? Perhaps you meant hipsters? Young urban professionals no longer exist.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Funny, I know lots, perhaps there are just zombies?
loomisjohnson OP
1,903 posts
 
i saw in passing today that spotify now claims 15 million paid subscribers, while beats music is believed to have only 300,000. (according to the same story, apple's itunes radio has some 40 million listeners; most, i presume, using the free service). which leads me to rethink my original assumption that buying beats was a shrewd move by apple, esp. since most analysts believed it was motivated by the potential of the streaming service, and not by headphone business.
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