Apple has spent 12 years strengthening Beats without folding it into AirPods, preserving a separate brand that can reach Android users, compete at lower prices, and sell products that wouldn’t fit under Apple’s own name. Here’s what it looks like inside the Beats lab.
Beats headphones
Beats headphonesThe strategy emerged from a rare look inside Beats’ Culver City operations. Executives described how the company combines its original design and marketing culture with Apple’s engineering resources.
Apple completed its $3 billion acquisition in 2014. Many employees who worked at Beats before the deal remain with the company.
Matthew Costello, Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering, told TechRadar that Beats was developed to complement AirPods rather than duplicate them. The company sells colorful headphones, fitness-focused earbuds and lower-cost products with support for both Apple and Google platforms.