While this makes little sense on the surface, I suspect the folks at Apple are far from stupid. There's likely a solid reason behind this move, and instead of doing the easy thing by saying "b-b-but their headphones are crap!", it'd be more productive to explore the underlying motives.
This isn't about Apple being smart or stupid. It's not about whether this deal makes sense monetarily.
It's about values. Apple has always trumpeted the kind of values that don't require having a PhD or the nose of an experienced businessman to judge. It's about great products, they say. Excellence in everything from the design, to the ads, the packaging, materials, hardware, software and even the stores where all this is being sold.
The reason people believed Apple has those values was that in no way anything Apple ever did either publicly or privately has ever shown any mismatch with their marketing message before.
And we'd hear the stories of Jobs crying when watching the Think Different ad. We'd know that even if you may think what these folks say is bullshit, at least they honestly believed their own bullshit.
And the confusion now is because people look at Apple + Beats, and they don't see how the sum improves on any of the goals Apple has repeatedly declared they care about. You can explain various accidents like the iPhone 4 antenna and so on as accidents, no one is perfect, but this is no accident. It's a deliberate action that makes no sense for the Apple we used to know before.
Maybe Tim Cook would like to explain why Apple + Beats makes sense. It worked when Apple shipped Macs with IE and had to accept investment from Microsoft in the 90s. And the explanation made sense.
However if we hear the typical corporate bullshit about synergy and how together they're greater and what not, without being able to explain why would this result in better products, there'll be a lot of disenfranchised Apple supporters, I can tell you that.
Comments
This isn't about Apple being smart or stupid. It's not about whether this deal makes sense monetarily.
It's about values. Apple has always trumpeted the kind of values that don't require having a PhD or the nose of an experienced businessman to judge. It's about great products, they say. Excellence in everything from the design, to the ads, the packaging, materials, hardware, software and even the stores where all this is being sold.
The reason people believed Apple has those values was that in no way anything Apple ever did either publicly or privately has ever shown any mismatch with their marketing message before.
And we'd hear the stories of Jobs crying when watching the Think Different ad. We'd know that even if you may think what these folks say is bullshit, at least they honestly believed their own bullshit.
And the confusion now is because people look at Apple + Beats, and they don't see how the sum improves on any of the goals Apple has repeatedly declared they care about. You can explain various accidents like the iPhone 4 antenna and so on as accidents, no one is perfect, but this is no accident. It's a deliberate action that makes no sense for the Apple we used to know before.
Maybe Tim Cook would like to explain why Apple + Beats makes sense. It worked when Apple shipped Macs with IE and had to accept investment from Microsoft in the 90s. And the explanation made sense.
However if we hear the typical corporate bullshit about synergy and how together they're greater and what not, without being able to explain why would this result in better products, there'll be a lot of disenfranchised Apple supporters, I can tell you that.
This.