What It Means for HTC
For starters, the speakers on HTC phones and tablets are going to start sounding a lot better. Beats has been partnering with HP for a few years already, putting some suped-up audio into their laptops, and they sound pretty damn good (for being laptops). Essentially HTC is going to try to corner the mobile device audio market by having better speakers than anyone else — an area where they’re currently flailing. Their speakers have been pretty lousy at best, and Motorola has been blasting them off the soundstage. Now? Not so much.
What It Means for Beats
Well, it means they’re going to have a lot more money to play with. More cash for R&D should translate to more innovation, if they spend it wisely. Beats, the brand, is owned by Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, and they work with Monster to manufacture their branded hardware (headphones, speakers, etc). They’ll continue to operate autonomously (so Monster will probably still be making the hardware unless they sink into hell), and they’ll still be putting Beats into Chryslers cars and HP laptops. Beats will also enjoy greater exposure outside the audiophile world.
What It Means For Dr. Dre
$175 MILLION
What It Means For You
Starting this Australian spring, HTC’s devices will have way better tunes (honestly it’d be hard for them not to). As more and more people are using phones as their primary listening device, the mobile music race is really going to heat up. HTC just made a $US300 million bid to win it. Beats has proven that they can pack big sound into small spaces and if they can successfully do it at the smartphone level then HTC will likely set a new aural bar that the competition’s going to have to try at least try to match. Basically: the biggest winner is your ears.
Gabriel
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 9:48 AMI can’t imagine anything by Dr. Dre sounding good
Cameron
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 9:51 AMI don’t even think he’s a real doctor!
Dr Ben
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 10:14 AMHollerin’ 187 wid a cap in your ass Byatch.
Kalem
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 10:21 AMThe biggest loser? People’s wallet. Those headphones are expensive. I’ll stick with some good Senheissers.
Dean Mandarean
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 10:36 AMEtymotic’s ftw, cheaper and actually sound amazing
brad
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 1:04 PMi actually just bought a set last night :)
beats “studio” to be precise. i have had many headsets over the years and over the past 5 years, they have all been quality. from senheisser to klipsch and nearly everything in between. but, in the few hours i have spent with these, i can honestly say they are incredible!! definitely expensive and maybe even overpriced. but still. omg, these headphones. these headphones, omg! they sound almost too good to be true and they feel pretty much the same. love them.
Adam
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 1:26 AMJBL are already leading the field here….read the review of the dell XPS 15 with JBL speakers vs the HP “Envy” Dre beats edition.
Professional musicians and dj’s already think the “Dre beats” headphones are crap, and reviews show they break.
Glad to see a lot of money being invested. They’ll NEED it to have any hope of producing decent product.
Person
Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 1:46 AMErr.. HTC didn’t buy Beats altogether, they bought a 51% stake in beats.