Speaking of which, you and Ktrain interested in helping me in creating up a cloud powered social SAAS start up with the sole intention of being acquired for billions of dollars by Apple/Facebook/Google?
We'll just need a flashy parallax website with some vapourware promises and maybe a kickstarter campaign. Honestly we could probably bang this out over the long weekend, lemme know your plans.
"It's everything you love about Facebook, Twitter, Grindr, and that little graphics Turtle you used in the early 90s - all rolled into one."
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Nintendo and their gaming IP are truly unique, valuable and better suited to Apple's continued movement into the living room. Even a partnership here would be an excellent move.
Apple would be better of spending the money to improve their OS and iOS which has lacked marked improvement compared to competitors in recent years.
They want to have a curated streaming music service that is edited. I wonder if the deal continues the management structure and curators must stay in place.
If Apple wanted to make high end headphones their brand would be strong enough to push that.
Hi-Fidelity headphones existed before Beats Studios, but only audiophiles cared to spend much on them. There was no mainstream market for $300 headphones. Beats created that market by making a premium fashion accessory that people saw and wanted. Watch this and tell me Beats is marketing audiophile gear:
I know loads of people who'd consider themselves audiophiles. Not one went from a pair of $300 AKGs or Sennheisers to a pair of Beats Studios. For most Beats customers, this is their first foray into high-end headphones. From a marketing standpoint - this is remarkable. They created a product nobody knew they wanted, well outside of mainstream "impulse buy" range. This is what makes Beats worth $3.2B to Apple.
Apple is going to have a similar challenge in wearables. They've got to make wearables that people want to be seen wearing so badly that they'll fork over hundreds. I can't think of a single company that can do that as well as Beats.
This is more about the curation technology behind the Beats streaming service than it is about the headphones. Not to mention immediate, inside access to some of the most brilliant minds in the music industry. Not just Iovine or Dre themselves, but the huge braintrust of radio program directors that provide the human element behind the Beats curation process.
Part of the deal is to bring Iovine inside Apple to report directly to Cook as a creative advisor. Iovine would also be bringing his address book with him, which represents some pretty significant personal relationships with some of the most infleuantial people in the entire industry.
Alot of market and media people are looking at this as Apple simply purchasing the Beats brand and are worried about Apple potentially pushing another brand besides its own (MacBook with Beats Audio, etc). Apple doesn't really buy brands though. It buys technology and resources, and I think that's exactly what its doing here as well.
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Originally Posted by FanIn80
Say it with me everybody... Curated streaming.
Quote:
Apple Announces $3 Billion Beats Acquisition, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre Joining the Company
We get a subscription music service that we believe is the first subscription service that really got it right. They had the insight early on to know how important human curation is. That technology by itself wasn’t enough — that it was the marriage of the two that would really be great, and produce a feeling in people that we want to produce.
Both Apple and Beats believe that a great music service requires a strong editorial and curation team, and we will continue to expand what we do in those areas. The addition of Beats will make our incredible iTunes lineup even better, extending the emotional connection our customers have with music.
IS there anything interesting or unique they do in this space that say Spotify or Pandora doesn't?
Having an industry exec and radio programmers in the mix just says to me that curation will be based on the same philosophies that existed in those tired old industries that are failing (radio and major record labels). They will figure out best how to use curation to promote the artists they represent and hope to re-establish the importance of artists being on those major labels. That will not make for a service that most users will appreciate. Otherwise, I don't see a whole lot of value in what music execs and radio programmers can bring, and are probably a detriment to providing a good user experience.
