Techcrunch was one of the first blogs to publish that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) intended to shelve Beats, its service associated with streaming music that it had acquired in May, 2014. While Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has denied such a report, its spokesperson Tom Neumayr having been quoted as responding “not true’, the author of the blog, Josh Constine, claims to have re-confirmed this news with five unrelated sources belonging to the tech giant as also Beats.
Another indication that it is not all-smoke-and-no-fire information is its omission from the latest Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) products, namely iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. There was no mention of Beats Music even during launch of iWatch, thus raising questions pertaining to its future in the company. However, a point that even Constine concedes is that a merger with iTunes might be on cards, meaning the service might be amalgamated into iTunes with the intention of creating a totally new product.
He expressed this possibility in the following statement –
“Considering Apple’s penchant for simple, unified brands, and how it despises fragmentation, shutting down Beats Music makes a lot of sense. Running a second music service in parallel with iTunes that forces people to learn a whole new interface might have confused customers. Beats Music’s CEO Ian Rogers was also put in charge of iTunes Radio, meaning he’s already splitting his time rather than just focusing on Beats Music.”
Beats music service, a Jimmy Iovine-Dr. Dre creation had been bought by Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) for $3 billion at a time when it boasted of only a few thousand subscribers as compared to its competitors namely Rdio, Spotify and so on. Post-acquisition, its co-founders’ talents have been effectively channeled within the vast tech giant but what may be proving to be a thorn is Beats’ incongruity with Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s existing system. Rather than have two incoherent music services, it only makes sense to merge them into one.
Given CEO Tim Cook’s penchant with Beats, it is not likely that the company would do away with the product completely but rather re-invent it to suit its purpose.
This article has been written by Vinita Basu.
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