Apple's acquisition of Beats Electronics will include the severing of several deals and partnerships that the headphone and music company has with other designers and vendors, including HP.
According to Hewlett-Packard (via CNET), which sells laptops with "Beats Audio" branded speakers, the company will cease to develop products with new Beats Audio technologies at the end of 2014. Under the terms of its deal with Beats, HP will continue to sell devices though 2015, however, with the licensing agreement terminating after that period.
A company spokesman said in an email that HP is allowed to continue developing products with new Beats Audio technologies through 2014. But it's allowed to continue selling devices with the Beats Audio logo and technology through 2015. HP says it's planning an aggressive lineup of new products that includes the Beats branding through 2014.
Beats will also be ending an ongoing partnership with design firm Ammunition (via TechCrunch), which has created the company's lineup of headphones and speakers, including the Beats Studio, Beats Pro, and Beats Pill. The transition away from Ammunition will happen over the next few months as Apple takes over designing new Beats hardware, under the leadership of Apple marketing head Phil Schiller.
Apple first announced its $3 billion Beats purchase earlier this afternoon, with Tim Cook suggesting Beats was the first music subscription to "get it right," as both Apple and Beats believe that a "great music service requires a strong editorial and curation team."
Beats' co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will both take on roles with Apple, with the entire Beats team serving under iTunes chief Eddy Cue.
Top Rated Comments
I think that Beats already undertook an exercise of improving its sound, build and design.
I wonder how many will forget the current line-up and simply compare those released under Apple ownership to some of the more embarassing of the old monster beats line up - and conclude that Apple worked a miracle.
Seriously, anything is better than Beats. My Lenovo laptop with JBL speaker is way better than Beats craps...Currently using JBL Bluetooth speaker connecting with my iPod Touch, $129 thing is way better than $199 Beats pills....
Turning on whatever DSP/equalisation Beats provided turned Lee Alexander's bass to sonic mush on the first couple of Norah Jones' albums. Any acoustic music (Jazz, Classical etc) is NOT improved by whatever tuning this Beats stuff provides.
So you've never used Beats at all then.