So much for Apple's appearance of being a premium brand. Beats products are junk. Until 2012, they were basically white-labeled Monster Cable products.
Yes, it's precisely about appearance. Beats head/earphones are very popular. They were also in some sort of partnership with HP (and perhaps others?) previously --- you can find many HP laptops with Beats Audio. This appears to be a selling point, so combined with the fashionable image of Beats, it makes sense that Apple would want to absorb this brand.
Also, most people aren't aware that Beats are junk. Many consumers mistake a strong bass for good audio quality (or even more shockingly, they don't care about quality, and bass is _what they want_).
The "beats audio" in partner hardware is just software eq to filter bass and then turn it back on again. It's sheer chicanery that I am disappointed that Apple would want to associate itself with.
Many consumers mistake a strong bass for good audio quality
Exactly. Heavy bass sounds powerful, psychologically speaking. And personally, although I prefer a flat response, I'd prefer one with more bass over one with more treble. Consumers have basically associated treble-heavy with the "tinny sound" of cheap headphones/earphones - there's a reason why there's no competing equivalent brand to Beats that emphasises treble (I suppose an appropriate name would be "Shrieks"?)
As for Beats, they (or at least their components) are made by the same OEMs in China that make tons of other headphones/headphone components, just sold at a ridiculous markup. You can buy headphones with the exact same bassy sound (and often the same or very similar looks!) from them, and get the same experience at a more appropriate price.
Interestingly, HTC bought a majority share (50.1%) in Beats, and slowly sold it back in pieces. Based on the timing, I wonder if Beats may have had to buy it back in order to sell to Apple.
In August 2013, reports surfaced that Beats' founders planned to buy back HTC's remaining minority stake in the company, and pursue a new, unspecified partner for a future investment.[11][12] On September 27, 2013, HTC confirmed its plan to sell its remaining 24.84% stake in Beats back to the company for $265 million, with the deal expected to close by the end of the year. Concurrently, Beats announced that the Carlyle Group would make a minority investment in the company"
Apple can drown them in quality control engineers in the first few months, and then they have a really solid brand. There hasn't been a headphone brand with such mass-market appeal in a long time - they are like the sony walkman of headphones.
