The Beats brand was a great entrée to an entire market segment that Apple was trying to better access. I'd say it was a masterful acquisition (and integration).
Yep! I own both a pair of AirPods and a pair of Beats. The Beats were designed for a lower price point, without noise cancellation, than the AirPods so I can’t offer a head-head comparison.
Cultural cachet of Beats - note how Apple kept the brand.
Jimmy Iovine & Dr Dre showed them how to tap into a new demographic.
It helped Apple get up and running with streaming faster, they needed to compete with Spotify.