Re:Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics
by gnaffle on Wednesday May 28, 2014 @05:25PM
(#7813064)
We don't know what he would have said, but what he did say before he passed away was that he explicitly didn't want people at Apple to ask what Steve would have done, he wanted them to do what they felt was right.
The deal would make no sense whatsoever if not for the music streaming service. It's interesting that they get the headphone business along with it - my hope is that they will gradually beef up the quality of the headphones in the process.
Re:Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics
by onedev on Wednesday May 28, 2014 @05:29PM
(#7813097)
They also get the legendary founder of Interscope records (who ran it for 25 years) and Dr. Fucking Dre as part of the deal to serve as Apple management. That's got to worth something.
Re:Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics
by ganeumann on Wednesday May 28, 2014 @05:46PM
(#7813176)
Yes, but what's the over/under on how long either of them stay? Seems a bit like Michael Ovitz at Disney: he lasted a year.
Re:Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics
by onedev on Wednesday May 28, 2014 @05:57PM
(#7813219)
What if they were given an opportunity and the complete responsibility to build a record label under Apple?
Total end-to-end control of music from creation to consumer listening.
Of course we can keep playing the what-if game, but I think there's a bit more to this deal than meets the eye.
I don't know, would he have? You asked the question in such a way as to imply the answer that no, he wouldn't, but you can't actually know that for sure. Also, we shouldn't be holding Apple to the standard of 'Steve Jobs was perfect so if he wouldn't have done this then it's bad'; Jobs made his share of mistakes anyway.
The confusing part is that Apple is spending $3bn on a company that makes mediocre, overpriced headphones with lousy sound quality. It makes no sense to me that they would buy a company like this when they have the money to create their own headphone line with better technology, equivalent or better design, and overall better result, likely at a lower price.
I guess we'll have to see where things go from here.