Now that Apple’s intentions to acquire Beats for $3 billion has been made official, what will happen to Beats’ current partnerships with other OEMs? We’re pretty sure Apple can’t be too thrilled at the idea that their soon-to-be acquired technology is being used by their competitors, right? Well we guess all good things have to come to an end, as HP has confirmed that their deal with Beats will end in 2014.
As you might have noticed, HP’s series of laptops have Beats Audio branded speakers on them, well some of them at least. This helps make the laptops sound better, or at least better than default laptop speakers. Similar deals have been done in the past with other speaker manufacturers, but given the popularity of Beats Audio, it does lend itself to a more “modern” and “hip” vibe.
However now that the deal has been announced, it seems that HP and Beats will be letting their deal with each other run out at the end of the year. At the same time under the terms of their agreement, HP will still be able to sell their products through 2015, so if you are still in a market for HP laptops with Beats Audio branded speakers embedded in them, you still have about a year left to shop for it.
As it stands, about 15-20% of HP’s devices sold have Beats Audio branded on them, including desktop computers and tablets. This means that once the deal expires, it seems that a good chunk of HP’s products will lose one of their unique and distinctive features. We’re not sure what this means for HP, but we guess they’ll have to find another way to market their products.