Apple’s Eddy Cue and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine took the stage at last night’s Re/Code Code Conference after Apple officially announced the Beats acquisition, the largest in its company history. Among highlights from the Re/Code interview: when asked if Apple was buying cool, Cue said “I don’t think you buy cool. But Beats is really cool.
We make great products, and we’re going to make great products together. I don’t know what being cool means.” Iovine also said that Beats Music has 250,000 subscribers.
Iovine said there was a “culture clash” in the now extinct Beats-HTC partnership, and the company’s ongoing branding deal with HP will be ending soon.
He said Apple has “good sound,” but also said, “Our dream is that everyone who buys a phone around the world, upgrades to good headphones. They have earbuds.” Of Apple’s EarPods, Iovine said they’re made “to see if the sound works.”
Regarding TV, Cue said that while Apple TV is improving and will continue to evolve and add content, overall, “the TV experience sucks.” He noted that solving the issues with TV is complicated, due to the many players involved. Near the end of the interview, Cue typically hyped Apple’s upcoming products without revealing anything: “Later this year, we’ve got the best product pipeline that I’ve seen in my 25 years at Apple,” he said.
