Beats Audio Wants to Ditch HTC
Article
Comments 15
Aug 19, 2013, 7:12 AM by Eric M. Zeman
Beats Audio is seeking alternative sources of funding in order to buy out its partner HTC. Beats wants to drop HTC, says the Wall Street Journal, because it is interested in pursuing new product lines and the companies no longer see eye to eye on strategy. In 2011, HTC bought half of Beats Audio for $300 million. HTC saw it as a way to add appeal to its devices, while Beats saw it as an opportunity to expand its brand. A year later, however, Beats bought back half of HTC's investment for $150 million, leaving HTC with a 25% stake in the headphone maker. According to the Journal's sources, Beats hopes to find a new investor in the coming weeks. There's no word on whether or not such a change in ownership would affect the presence of Beats Audio software on HTC's devices.
Poor HTC
I feel so bad for them. They came out with an effing BEAUTIFUL phone in the One X (and One XL here stateside), but their software was half-assed and the hardware limitations (1gb of RAM was on the verge of being obsolete even at that point) caused serious lag after the carriers touched it. And the audio/speakers were awesome! I thought the One X was/is the best looking phone ever! I just wish they'd given more concern to the software/hardware of the phone. The One is a fugly tin can-looking POS. It's already cheap at Wal-Mart! $149 w/contract. So now you can't give an HTC away. Who can blame Beats for wanting to get off a sinking ship?:-(
Are you kidding me? The HTC One is a sexy piece of hardware. The hardware is amazing and the software is so fast and wonderful. It is currently the best phone on the market. And having the speakers in the front of the device is such a small but am...
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keithfrombm said:
The One is a fugly tin can-looking POS. It's already cheap at Wal-Mart! $149 w/contract. So now you can't give an HTC away. Who can blame Beats for wanting to get off a sinking ship?:-(
Are you ser...
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Yeah, I'm gonna totally disagree on the looks of the One. It reminds me strongly of the iPhone 5's front-end with a back-end that feels like my thermos. ugh. And sales are most definitely not strong, as Wal-Mart discounted it by $50 within a month of ...
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It doesn't take a genious to design a phone that people will like, and will sell. In fact, almost any idiot could do it, but apparently HTC can not. They design their own phones, they make their own phones based on their own ideas. How can you feel...
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Sex Appeal
To me, Beats Audio is one of the biggest sex appeal for HTC phones, this will make them lose quite some followers. Wonder what would happens if Beats Audio joins forces with the biggest phone maker Samsung. Imagine having Beats Audio on a Galaxy SIIII or in one of Samsung's new line of phones. (;
They should expand their horizon a bit, and go Nokia and Samsung. 😁 Both are great make great devices.
I don't know how many HTC Ones and EVO LTE/X have had blown speakers. But the number is quite high. And I don't know if it's HTC's fault or Beats
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