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Sad rumor…
Apparently the FCPX folks have been put on hiatus and moved from their offices to make room for the new headphone folks? Makes sense.
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 -
44 Replies
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What’s your source? Cite your source. Otherwise it seems like you are trying to start this rumor. It makes zero sense.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
The keyword here is rumor. I do not believe everything posted on the net. Time will tell the truth, the real story. My two cents, whatever it is worth.
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There’s no need to set aside a few extra desks for headphones. Apple announced today the biggest acquisition in their company history, $3 billion for Beats Electronics.
This is primarily a subscription music play — indeed, both Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre (you read that right) will be reporting directly to Eddie Cue, Apple’s internet services guy (you read that right, too) — but I have a feeling that Apple has the future of its headphone business well in hand.
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Still a baffling purchase. Obvioulsy the guys aren’t worth billions. And the subscription service isn’t worth much. And Apple already has their own or the elements to produce a similar service. Apple could certainly produce cheap headphones if it wanted and they’d probably crush the competition cuz every kid would want their iPhones. There must be something else going on I think.
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Separately the components may not make sense. But together I think it equates to a “good” deal in comparison to other high-value purchases made recently. By that I mean when you consider the 18billion purchase of WhatsApp by Facebook.
I think it’s a 50/50 really on the subscription music service and Iovine/Dre. Iovine has apparently been very close with Apple for nearly a decade, involved with iTunes from very early on. Has a lot of pull with the record industry and Hollywood. Apparently sales of digital music is on it’s way down with the rise of these subscription music services like Spotify. BeatsMusic is still young (200,000’ish subscribers)- so Apple still getting in before it gets too big to buy.
I think the headphones thing is honestly something they just had to take as part of the package. It’s a profitable and popular brand (regardless of what us pros think of their quality)- so there’s way worse ways to spend money. And I’m sure it will eventually merge into something else. Eddie Cue talked tonight about speakers being a big opportunity.
Cue also talked about AppleTV. I think there is a big opportunity to do away with a lot of the complexity of home theatre. Getting rid of complexity on both the software and the hardware side. Again, to meet consumer needs.
Regardless, since the deal won’t even be finalized until later this year, and HP still has a Beats licence until the end of 2015, I don’t think we’ll see the real results of this for several years.
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Yeah, buy hey, I watch Shark Tank. Where’s the valuation coming from? 200,000 (I heard it was more like 110,000) times what, $120/year = $24 million. I know there’s the headphones and such, but the numbers don’t really add up. If you had a business that was brining in 24 mil a year, with no guarantee someone might come up with something better the next year (myspace anyone?) I’d think you’d be pretty happy to take 10 times the valuation (240million) for it. But 100 times it’s valuation? Wow.
And facebook lost their mind.
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Apple isn’t buying it for the existing user base- or even the potential user base of the existing product. BeatsMusic will eventually get folded into something Apple-branded. I think it’s mostly a technology buy on that side. For a billion or two in value Apple gets to jumpstart their subscription music offering.
Ultimately I don’t think the Beats brand survives this- I mean 5 years from now.
And until then Apple still gets the 1Billion a year Beats makes on headphone sales- so they recoup their 3 billion investment in 3 years.
But lets be honest- that’s small potatoes to Apple.
Apple is notoriously stingy with acquisitions- usually small technology companies that have stuff they want for their hardware or services offerings. They have to see something here. Or a mixture of things: People. Technology. Brand.
As Cue said tonight- this has been in the works for a while.
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Well, since we’re speculating…
I read some months back that Apple partnered with one or more of of the worlds largest hearing aid companies and are doing joint development on assisted listening products. These are supposed to be tied into iPhone app use such that you can dial in listening profiles for hearing aids as well as use Bluetooth links for incorporating remote monitoring from the phone to the hearing aid.
What got me interested was imagining that such a system if delivering exceptional fidelity – might be a massively wonderful audui monitoring system in the field. After all sound is sound. And a programmable tiny in-ear monitor could just as easily provide entertainment as hearing loss support.Headphones, earbuds, hearing aids. Seems like they ae all cousins. And maybe Apple has its sights on “personal audio” in a much broader sense than just music headphones?
Remember, headphones for music, even at the high end sell for hundreds…some high end hearing aids sell for thousands. And the baby boomers are aging right toward that sweet spot.
Just trying to keep one eye on the big picture here.
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It’s genius. First they trash your hearing with earbuds, then come to the rescue with beats hearing aids!
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Speaking as a boomer who’s hearing has gotten so bad I can hardly hear myself let alone someone else, having an “integrated” hearing aid system that incorporated to all of my devices would be pretty slick. I have a set of hearing aids now that will communicate via BT to a device I have to wear around my neck but quite frankly it is still a PITA to use. I’ve about given up going to movies and theater as I have a very difficult time making out dialog. Movies these days, I swear, have their audio mixed by idiots, and this is not just deaf me talking. My kids routinely complain that they have a very difficult time making out dialog.
If I could get a well integrated hearing aid system that would allow me to use my aids so I can hear well in my home, movie theater and dramatic theaters such that things don’t have to be a 90db for everyone else I’d get it in a heartbeat. At the moment, while some of these things are available, they are a hodge-podge of services that may or may not work and are not consistent.
Definitely hearing challenged in Phoenix………..
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