As shared by The Loop, there is some speculation on whether Apple will end the Beats brand. iMore says Apple should kill it, while 9to5Mac claims to have learned there is no plan to kill it. It started because of a separate rumor that Apple will release over-the-ear headphones under the AirPods brand. Quote from the iMore piece:
If Apple is truly planning to release over-the-ear noise-canceling pair of headphones similar to the Bose 700 has Jon Prosser suggests, it would be incredibly redundant to continue to release Beats as well. The Apple brand is just more valuable to Apple than the Beats brand — plain and simple.
My two cents is that Apple will probably phase out Beats, but not this year. It will be a gradual process over the next 10 years, like how the iPod touch still gets an occasional refresh but otherwise isn’t mentioned. You can’t kill a brand like Beats overnight. Once over-the-ear AirPods come out, and they will, phase one will be complete. There will be an AirPod for each Beats category, because you can’t leave customers hanging without alternatives, thank you very much.
Check It Out: Will Apple Kill Beats? Probably Not This Year
No way would Apple “Sell” Beats. You don’t sell a brand when you’re a company the size of Apple… you just let it slowly transition into retirement. It would take years for people to stop equating the Beats brand with Apple more than they do now (which isn’t much).
I have not listened to any Beats-branded headphones at Apple stores or anywhere else. However, they have a reputation of being extremely bass-heavy. Example from https://www.quora.com/Are-Beat-headphones-too-bass-heavy :
“Yes. And it’s not only that they are bass heavy, but the bass range is muddy and undefined. They are designed very deliberately to have a sound that appeals to the target market, regardless of how overhyped and poorly presented that sound is. Just like Bose (which also generally sounds like overpriced garbage) is also designed to have a sound that can be easily ‘sold’ to it’s target market.
Neither of those ‘sounds’ are about accuracy or quality.”
Frankly, I’d want no part of that on or in my ears, and I hope that they don’t merge the brands.