Roger Fingas
Shortly after Apple's $3 billion takeover of Beats in 2014, Beats president Luke Wood dropped all attention on Beats Music in favor of the company's flagship Electronics division, according to an interview published on Tuesday.
Apple Music carries on much of Beats' thinking on curation and discovery, Wood commented to Mashable. Beats Music was the foundation of Apple's on-demand streaming service, and will eventually shut down once subscriber migration finishes. Wood's statement may suggest that Apple Music development began almost immediately after the Beats buyout.
Currently, Beats Electronics is looking to expand sales to markets where its speakers and headphones have little to no footprint, Wood said.
"There are markets in Asia where the brand has not spent a lot of time. In India, Bollywood and music drives culture like almost nowhere else in the world. Brazil is another," he noted. "We want to become a more globally focused brand and just make great products."
Wood also spoke on a variety of other topics, for instance claiming that music listeners are finally "getting" high-quality audio, having previously been willing to settle for lower quality in the peak of filesharing during the early 2000s.
At the same time the executive addressed complaints that Beats products favor bass at the expense of the rest of the sound range. Beats' first-generation headphones were made to "replicate the excitement of modern albums," Wood said, referring to changes like digital recording and synthesizers, and the advent of sub-amplifiers.
Apple has left Beats Electronics relatively unchanged in terms of product design and marketing. The most notable difference has been the addition of gold, silver, and space gray colors to some product lines, and even greater presence within Apple Stores.
On Monday Wood appeared alongside Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe at others at the Beats Sound Symposium in Sydney, Australia. He spoke with Mashable away from that event.
Malcolm Owen
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22 Comments
I've been waiting for Apple's (or Beats') entry into Lightning headphones. Still nothing yet.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/01/08/lightning-connected-headphones-proliferate-with-new-models-from-philips-and-jbl
I've been waiting for Apple's (or Beats') entry into Lightning headphones. Still nothing yet.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/01/08/lightning-connected-headphones-proliferate-with-new-models-from-philips-and-jbl
I've never been sure about this.
If you plug in your lightning headphones then you can't charge your phone.
In before someone complains about the Beats deal or mentions thugs. I wish they would focus on audio and build quality now to match Apple's products. ESPECIALLY build quality. They should make aluminum headphones(no joke) and replace all Apple Store iPhone/iPad/iPod headphones connected to their demo units with them. Last time I visited an Apple Store(post Beats deal) the demo units were paired with random headphones and brands. It looked messy. Maybe that's changed recently. Idk. [quote name="sog35" url="/t/187967/beats-president-luke-wood-now-100-focused-on-electronics-division-targeting-global-expansion#post_2768965"]Beats electronics will make $1 billion in profits a year by 2017. Easily making the Beats acquistion an incredible move by Apple. Compare that to what Google is doing with Nest. LOL. [/quote] All tech blogs have forgotten about the Motorola and Nokia deal but I'm sure they'll release pseudo anti-Beats articles routinely. Like the latest headline I read, "Apple's grab for street cred could bite them in the a**"
[quote name="Rayz" url="/t/187967/beats-president-luke-wood-now-100-focused-on-electronics-division-targeting-global-expansion#post_2768990"] I've never been sure about this. If you plug in your lightning headphones then you can't charge your phone. [/quote] I'm not sure who's listening via headphones while their device is charging? In my opinion the hardware is still too big. I'd wait until they can make the Lightning plug a quarter of the size.
I've never been sure about this.
If you plug in your lightning headphones then you can't charge your phone.
I've never been in a position where I had to charge my iPhone AND use headphones at the same time. Only times I actually use headphones is relaxing at home (like in bed or on the couch) or when out of the house (exercising or on the train).
And to gain the extra functionality of a Lightning headphone would be well worth the very rare occasion I might find myself in that I need to charge and listen.