{"id":32608,"date":"2014-05-20T17:13:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T17:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/on-apple-beats\/"},"modified":"2014-05-20T17:13:16","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T17:13:16","slug":"on-apple-beats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/on-apple-beats\/","title":{"rendered":"On Apple & Beats"},"content":{"rendered":"

dbreunig<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Perhaps the best way to think about Apple\u2019s acquisition of Beats is to think about Disney\u2019s acquisition of Marvel<\/a>. Here\u2019s what The New York Times<\/em> had to say:<\/p>\n

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The brooding Marvel characters tend to be more popular with boys \u2014 an area where Disney could use help. While the likes of \u201cHannah Montana\u201d and the blockbuster Princesses merchandising line have solidified Disney\u2019s hold on little girls, franchises for boys have been harder to come by.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Disney bought an audience to which their current products did not speak. When you\u2019re selling content, there are no tech specs. Appeal is based on emotion, culture, and fashion. Disney bought Marvel in order to buy the attention and devotion of comic book fans, an audience which is strong in demographic segments where Disney was weak.<\/p>\n

I believe Apple bought Beats largely for this reason: Beats is popular with the same 14-25 year olds that care less about Apple products.<\/strong> It is no mistake this is the audience Samsung, Motorola, and HTC have been addressing. Each of these firms did their market research and realized Apple was weak with youth.<\/p>\n

Consider this and feel ancient: the first iPod or iPhone this youth audience had access to was likely their parents<\/em>. The ways in which Apple was<\/em> cool do not apply to this segment (U2 iPods anyone? Alicia Keys announcements?) Cool is fickle, and only very rarely does one remain in vogue across two consecutive generations1<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Compounding Apple\u2019s waning cool is the trend of technology products to be evaluated for qualitative reasons.<\/strong> This is a trend Apple itself kicked off, starting with the first Bondi Blue iMac. The features and specs of a technology product are becoming less and less important<\/a>. Read Sam Biddle\u2019s excellent back-room history of Beats<\/a> to see this in action: the alleged technical brains behind the original Beats were literally ousted<\/em> and the company didn\u2019t miss a step.<\/p>\n

As technology becomes wearable, this trend towards quantitative assessment is exacerbated.<\/strong> People hesitate to buy a gadget they keep in their pocket or bag if they don\u2019t like the way it looks. People will never<\/em> buy a gadget they keep on their wrist if they don\u2019t like the way it looks. Period.<\/p>\n

If Apple isn\u2019t fashionable, any wearable they launch is dead in the water.<\/strong> Regardless of it\u2019s technological abilities. Apple is cool for the older, \u201cU2\u201d audiences. If it is even questionably<\/em> cool for young audiences, a wearable product will never become a mass success. Young people are crucial for new product categories. They have high disposable incomes and lots of disposable time (to take on learning curves).<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s purchased Beats for it\u2019s demographic appeal. Without this appeal, all wearable product lines were at risk.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    Though generation-skipping cool is the norm. (We\u2019re just borrowing our grandfathers Filson bag, scotch, and facial hair.)\u00a0↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    dbreunig: Perhaps the best way to think about Apple\u2019s acquisition of Beats is to think about Disney\u2019s acquisition of Marvel. Here\u2019s what The New York Times had to say: The brooding Marvel characters tend to be more popular with boys \u2014 an area where Disney could use help. While the likes of \u201cHannah Montana\u201d and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[1539],"class_list":["post-32608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-emergent-digital-practices"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-8tW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}