U.S. Teens Love Beats Headphones. Apple is apparently in advanced talks to buy headphone maker Beats Electronics in a deal that could be worth $3.2 billion.
Many people are puzzled why Apple would want to acquire Beats: reviewers have repeatedly described Beats headphones as average, an attribute that doesn't fit with Apple's mantra to make the best products in the world. Some are arguing that Apple is buying Beats for its streaming service Beats Music, which was launched earlier this year. If so, the question is why Apple doesn't buy Spotify or Rdio, two established streaming services that don't come with the additional weight of a hardware business. From an economic point of view, a $3 billion purchase of Beats doesn't seem like that bad a deal. After all, despite its mediocre reviews, Beats headphones are immensely popular among the youth, as anyone who has recently used public transportation can testify. This chart ranks the preferred headphone brands by American teens.
<a href=" title="Infographic: U.S. The Apple TV set is coming, Cook hints in US TV interview. Apple is still focused on doing something about reinventing the TV, CEO Tim Cook indicated in an interview with a US TV network.
He also revealed Apple is planning to invest US$100m to bring manufacturing back to the US with a line of Macs. In an interview with Brian Williams of NBC’s Rock Center, Cook said: “When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.” Apple had been rumoured to be working on a TV display device for a number of years and in Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late former CEO Steve Jobs, Jobs said he’d “cracked it” when it comes to making TVs work better for people.
Apple already has a TV-based product called the Apple TV on the market, a set top box that interacts with other Apple devices and allows users to buy or rent TV and movie content, as well as access streaming services. Apple To Open Up SDK For Apple TV Apps.
5 Reasons Why Apple Will Win Again with the iPad. Fool me once.
Shame on you. Fool me twice… I won’t get fooled again! How about a third time? Almost as soon as Apple came out with the iPad, it became fashionable for the technorati to point out its flaws. However, Apple will surely prove the naysayers wrong, just as they did with the iPod and the iPhone. Here are 5 reasons why Apple will win again: The Purple Ocean As I’ve pointed out before, Apple doesn’t look for Blue Oceans, but Purple ones.
Just like the iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player and the iPhone wasn’t the first mobile phone (or even the first smart phone), the iPad isn’t a new idea. That means there is plenty of data out there to crunch. Usability Apple isn’t a company that produces new ideas (even the Macintosh was based on a graphical user interface developed at Xerox), but one that builds fantastic products. One thing that nobody disputes is that the iPad works incredibly well. Everyone who has actually ever built a technology product knows how hard this is. Strategic Clarity. Apple's (not so) Stupid Strategy. Apple is one of the most successful companies in the world today by almost any measure, except one.
They seem oblivious to the wisdom of today’s business experts. Sure, everybody loves their products and they are immensely profitable. Yet they fail to answer basic strategic questions that management gurus believe are key to running a successful business. Where’s the Blue Ocean? W. The solution is clear: Find a blue ocean without all of those vicious fish. Apple, however, seems to completely ignore the blue oceans and want to dive into every red ocean they see. Apparently not satisfied with just one strategic misstep they went to the even more competitive mobile handset market. Surely Apple must not have thought things through or just chose to ignore the advice of respected business experts. Of course, both the iPod and the iPhone have been enormous successes, but that isn’t really the point. What is their Core Competency? It shouldn’t matter if people love their stores. Why the father of disruption theory is worried about Apple. Christensen on TCTV, via TechCrunch FORTUNE -- About 40 minutes into the interview with Clay Christensen that Asymco's Horace Dediu posted Wednesday on his Critical Path podcast, Dediu brings the conversation around to Apple (AAPL).
Christensen, who was Dediu's mentor at Harvard Business School, is best known as the author of The Innovator's Dilemma -- a book that "deeply influenced" Steve Jobs, according to his biographer. It describes how great companies that seem to be doing all the right things -- listening to their customers, increasing productivity, using technology to steadily improve their products -- almost invariably get overtaken by new, less profitable technologies that for very good business reasons the established leaders don't pursue until it's too late. Christensen had told Andrew Keen in a TechCrunch TV interview earlier in the week that he was "worried" about Apple, but Keen didn't follow up.
Dediu does. Christensen, it turns out, has two concerns about Apple: Innovation: Lessons from Apple.