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It’s been quite some time since we had some really hot Apple rumors, so in case you missed them, here are the freshest news related to the tech giant. According to recent reports, is seems that Apple intends to buy Beats Electronics, the high – end headphones company (the largest one in America for that matter) founded by Dr. Dre. While Beats Electronics is relatively new to the market, it gained a tremendous success among musicians, celebrities and people appreciating sturdy, high – quality, high – design over – the – ear headphones. If you add to this equation the fact that HTC One, also called the best smartphone in the world, features Beats Electronics speakers and received international ovations related to the sound quality, you may get a clearer picture on why Apple intends to buy Beats Electronics and why it is willing to spend $3.2 billion. If they actually close this deal (although officials from Beats and Apple didn’t confirm the negotiations when questioned), this purchase will be remembered as the largest acquisition in the history of Apple, something that late Steve Jobs might not be so happy about.
But is it more to this deal than the eye can see?
In the last decade, Apple got us used to high – end fashionable products that appeal to the elites and a $300 – $400 a pair of headphones isn’t something to scare customers away. But according to the specialists from New York Times and Bloomberg who covered this subject, it’s not like Apple is going to buy Dr. Dre’s company, put the logo on the headphones and ship them around the world as the next big thing in Apple gadgetry. According to Adam Satariano from Bloomberg News,
[quote]A deal for the Santa Monica, California-based company, which was founded by music-industry executive Jimmy Iovine and hip-hop artist Dr. Dre, would bolster Apple’s online music capabilities by giving it ownership of the Beats Music service that started earlier this year. For $10 a month, subscribers get unlimited access to all of the songs in the service’s catalog through a smartphone, tablet or Web browser.[/quote]
While Apple is still the most powerful player in the digital music industry, it has to strengthen its position, as competition is fierce and is coming from the likes of Pandora and Spotify. You can’t ignore the irony, as back in the day, Iovine and Dr.Dre started making and aggressively promoting their high – end headphones as an answer to the mass hysteria and world -wide trend of listening to music on the go with the help of iPods and in – ear headphones. Now, Apple is aiming big by purchasing this company, as it won’t just narrow its strategy to the digital music world, but will make the Beats Electronics headphones a part of their developing hardware and devices. In the words of Ben Bajarin, a consumer technology analyst for Creative Strategies quoted by the New York Times,
This would have to fit into a much longer, more innovative strategy around perhaps the hardware and the service.
Until official news about the purchase are released, let’s wait and see what happens in the world of the largest tech players.
