Beats Audio and Apple? Either the prank of the decade, or perhaps a canny buy?

When I read about the rumored purchase of Beats Electronics by Apple, my head snapped around. 3.2 billion for overpriced crap headphones? The inclusion of two rap music executives in  Apple’s Silicon Valley culture? 

First off, I am a month away from turning 59. I am an old white guy who likes classical music and old-school jazz. Apple clearly doesn’t worry about this segment of their market. If Apple does buy Beats, they want to tap into the share of the market buying $300 over the head headphones. Young people with ready cash. 

Second, you can criticize the headphones all you want. I personally went for the <$30 Monoprice DJ headphones. But you can’t ignore the success of a company selling its brand of audio in the form of headphones and Bluetooth speakers. It has sold the Beats audio to Hewlett-Packard for inclusion in its computers. How much of this is the sizzle and how much is the actual steak remains to be seen.

We’ll have to see if this deal materializes or falls flat. Personally, I’m feeling  wary. I remember all the hype about the merger of AOL with Time-Warner. Not one of the great business ideas of all time, as it panned out. 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog