Apple's Acquisition of Beats Electronics to End Several Third-Party Partnerships

Have all of the people comlaining so casually about how "beats" sound listened to the newer models (post monster)? I am certainly no audiophile, but I do own several of the headphones that audiophiles rave about. From listening in store, I find that the newest released beats (I think called studio) are as good as, and share manay characteristics with, some of the very headphones people throw out as being superior in every way. They are colored, to be sure, and you do pay something for brand and design - but they are certainly not bad. They are also built well, and some models are understated in design.

I think that Beats already undertook an exercise of improving its sound, build and design.

I wonder how many will forget the current line-up and simply compare those released under Apple ownership to some of the more embarassing of the old monster beats line up - and conclude that Apple worked a miracle.

[url=https://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image (https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/28/apple-beats-deal-ending-partnerships/)[/url]


Image (https://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2014/05/beats1-250x311.png)Apple's acquisition of Beats Electronics (https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/28/apple-buys-beats/) will include the severing of several deals and partnerships that the headphone and music company has with other designers and vendors, including HP.

According to Hewlett-Packard (via CNET (http://www.cnet.com/news/the-beats-go-on-at-hp-at-least-until-2015/)), which sells laptops with "Beats Audio" branded speakers, the company will cease to develop products with new Beats Audio technologies at the end of 2014. Under the terms of its deal with Beats, HP will continue to sell devices though 2015, however, with the licensing agreement terminating after that period.Beats will also be ending an ongoing partnership (http://www.ammunitiongroup.com/work/1922-2/) with design firm Ammunition (via TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/28/beats-parts-ways-with-design-firm-as-apple-takes-over-its-hardware/)), which has created the company's lineup of headphones and speakers, including the Beats Studio (http://store.apple.com/us/product/HD025VC/A/beats-studio-over-ear-headphones), Beats Pro (http://store.apple.com/us/product/H9483VC/A/beats-pro-over-ear-black-with-standard-finish), and Beats Pill (http://store.apple.com/us/product/HD904VC/A/beats-by-dr-dre-pill-xl-speaker). The transition away from Ammunition will happen over the next few months as Apple takes over designing new Beats hardware, under the leadership of Apple marketing head Phil Schiller.

Apple first announced its $3 billion Beats purchase earlier this afternoon, with Tim Cook suggesting Beats was the first music subscription to "get it right," as both Apple and Beats believe that a "great music service requires a strong editorial and curation team."

Beats' co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will both take on roles with Apple, with the entire Beats team serving under iTunes chief Eddy Cue.

Article Link: Apple's Acquisition of Beats Electronics to End Several Third-Party Partnerships (https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/28/apple-beats-deal-ending-partnerships/)

Seriously, anything is better than Beats. My Lenovo laptop with JBL speaker is way better than Beats craps...Currently using JBL Bluetooth speaker connecting with my iPod Touch, $129 thing is way better than $199 Beats pills....

Apple designing the product is great news, the Pill in particular is an ugly thing.

Thanks for buying Beats Apple, now do me a favor and buy Nintendo while you're at it.

Having heard the Beats audio on a Touchpad a couple of years back, feel free to either not include it on iDevices or at least give us the option to bypass it.

Turning on whatever DSP/equalisation Beats provided turned Lee Alexander's bass to sonic mush on the first couple of Norah Jones' albums. Any acoustic music (Jazz, Classical etc) is NOT improved by whatever tuning this Beats stuff provides.

The new HTC M8 does not use Beats... The older M7 uses Beats...but that doesn't really help HTC boost their sale much. Also the new Sprint M8 uses Harman Kardon headphone...

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It was pretty funny... I brought one of fake Beats headphone from eBay.. Brought to work, nobody actually know it was a fake one. I also heard that people saying fake Beats are just as good as real one in terms of sound quality. I never used laptop with beats...but I know that my Lenovo laptop with JBL rocks. Since that, I brought few JBL Bluetooth speaker, JBL never disappointment me.

So you've never used Beats at all then.