[abalone]

Update on my comment: After reading this article over at Daily Dot there are maybe some flaws in my assumptions.[1]

1. Apple might actually need to acquire a team to do better licensing deals with the music (and TV/movie?) industry. Beats, I didn't realize, has some incredible people involved and has a lot of industry buy-in. That sets it apart from Spotify, etc. even though it has no subscribers.

2. Maybe Apple does want to buy a brand. The Beats brand has a lot of pull with communities where Apple doesn't, especially African-Americans. They may see it as an opportunity to upsell them from Android to Apple products.

3. Maybe Apple does need a cross-platform service to do the deals it needs. Like they did with iTunes on Windows back in the day. They get that, without any awkward "iTunes for Android"

4. Beats' headphones business is totally not Apple's approach.. yet? Right now it's more like Monster Cable, commodity product dressed up with sales & marketing & cachet. But what's to stop Apple from improving the quality of the brand? Apple-designed Beats headphones could be something very special. (But that is the weirdest part of this.. Monster is the antithesis of Apple and Apple's never done sub-brands. Maybe they literally bought them just for the preceding reasons.)

[1] http://www.dailydot.com/technology/apple-beats-jimmy-iovine-...