Apple's purchase of headphone maker Beats By Dre for $3 billion is a big payday for Beats founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. But what's in it for Apple?
Beats By Dre headphones are flashy, cool, a fashion statement. One critic called them the Air Jordans of headwear. Most reviewers, however, say Beats headphones aren't actually that good.
"Every time I've listened to them, I think, 'Oh, right, I really don't like these,' " says Whitson Gordon, editor-in-chief of Lifehacker.com.
Gordon has reviewed Beats headphones for Lifehacker, and he says they make everything sound like live music — in a bad way.
"It's almost like when you go to a concert and you're standing too close to the speakers, and you're just hearing this booming noise, and sometimes you can't even tell what song they're playing," he says. "You can't hear the mids and the highs. That's what listening to Beats is like, for me."
So why would Apple spend $3 billion for this technology, if not for the audio fidelity?
Because Apple's not really concerned with making the best-sounding headphones, says Tyll Hertsens, editor-in-chief of the audio review website InnerFidelity.com.
"Apple has a great deal of interest in putting sensors of various types in headphones and making headphones smart," Hertsens says.
Such headphones could monitor a lot about the wearer, he says.
"Temperature, pulse, perspiration, sensors for athletic tracking applications, position sensing so they can tell when your head is moving, the ability to give you cues to where things are," Hertsens says.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark office gave Apple a patent for a sports monitoring system for headphones. The patent says the devices would also be able to tell when the user is speaking, or know if the headphones are on ears or off.
It's much easier for Apple to integrate that new technology with a company like Beats — which already has a big headphone infrastructure — than for the company to build it up from scratch, says Dan Frakes, senior editor of MacWorld.
"They just sort of accelerated the process from the logistical standpoint," Frakes says, "because now they've got the resources to design and produce something."
The Two-Way
Apple Buys Dr. Dre's Beats Electronics For $3 Billion