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HTC may drop Beats Audio from future handsets
HTC may drop Beats integration from its future handsets, if a rumour from MyDrivers pans out. The Taiwanese company has been shedding cash in recent quarters despite successful product launches in the One X and One S. It also recently half of its 51% investment in Beats Audio back to the original owners at a slightly loss.
Beats integration was one of the premiere features of the One series including the One X, One S and One V, but the company has been backtracking on its commitment to the brand as it is under pressure to cut costs. Apparently, its investors and board of directors have pressured the company to launch high-end phones at a lower price to better compete in the market.
Samsung is the de facto leader in the Android market, and while HTC has continued to wow a small segment of the market with its high-quality products, its margins are much lower than its Korean counterpart due to supply chain limitations. Pricing its handsets lower than they already are would mean even more of a pinch on profits, something the company can’t afford. We’re likely to see HTC shedding even more excess in the coming months as it struggles to stay afloat. Diving into the enterprise market may be a good start, but we’re holding out hope for a longer-term solution that doesn’t just involve shedding the few brand tie-ins it already has.
Source: MyDrivers
Via: Android Police & Phandroid
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22 comments for “HTC may drop Beats Audio from future handsets”
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Good. Beats are a waste anyways.
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HTC has no business sense. Putting beats audio on a phone just made that tech seem so cheap sounding and crappy. They ruined it.
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no man they did not ruined it, simply becasue every one wants pay ford price drives mecerdes bens, people been way too cheap speically in this land
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The beats partnership was the worst idea ever. It’s basically an equalizer that is set for high bass boost. We’ve had those on CD/MP3 players for ever. They all suck if you listen to music with actual instruments.
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HTC did not give what customers wanted… No sd slot and non removable battery. Once they start listening and carrying out those suggestions, they will do much much better.
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Correction: HTC did not give what YOU wanted. The majority of people could care less about removable batteries and sd card slots, its the minuscule tech community that is always barking about those features. This time around HTC was appealing to the normal folks and not us spec hungry tech nerds.
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@DarthPaton : i dont agree , most ppl in 3rd world countries have had these features for a long time in their other phones and this is something ppl ask for in countries like india,china where piracy is rampant. there are several shops that sell music/movies in GB rates. As in you can ask them to load 5 GB of New songs for X$ . Some shops were selling cards with preloaded pirated music.
So this was good for some european and north american market but for asia and south america sd cards are very imp. Maybe that is why Samsung never released Galaxy nexus in these markets.
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I got my SGSII because it has an SD slot, removable battery, and plays FLAC lossless audio files natively!
Beats is BS.
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I bet Dr. Dre is laughing his a*s off. Beats Audio is the Apple of headphones: making a decent yet overpriced product, sold on marketing hype.
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sums it up pretty much. htc had to lose millions of $ to realize that.
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I an tell you after having an htc phone for awhile my next phone will be a nexus!
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Found this beats audio thing pretty misleading. Most people I talked to about it figured they came with a pair of beats earbuds. Turns out they dont even come with the standard low cost earbuds found in every other phone for the last 5 years.
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Most people also think they don’t want to pay taxes.
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I think you a word…
“It also recently half of its 51% investment in Beats Audio”
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Using half as a verb. So HTC sold of half of it’s 51%
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I prefer by far the sound of my One S over my Panache so some things must be better than before. I think Beats Audio improved something but it failed because they just target Beats headphones and bass booming music.
They should drop branding and automatic settings to be more like sound cards and give more manual settings (EQs, Dolby, Cristallisation, etc)
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The day they load an audio card into a phone is the day I get that phone
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I do beleive there is a market for higher-end Android products than Samsung. HTC could take advantage of that. Personally, I wouldn’t mind paying more than a GS3 if it’s worth it.
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“It also recently half of its 51% investment in Beats Audio back to the original owners at a slightly loss.”
Is that even english? That entire sentence is awful. Get some editors or something.
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The everyday people listen to their tech friends and the i***t at the store, and if hype up a specific brand or device thats the one they will go with.
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It’s a shame that the best phone maker in the world is not making money, but the worst one in the world is making the most. Crazy how it works.
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Just picked up a one s a few weeks ago, great phone, haven’t had a chance to load up my music and try out thr sound just yet.
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