Beats Electronics and HTC break up, announce end of partnership

For quite some time now, every time you bought an HTC handset your new toy would come with not one, but two giant logos – one for HTC, and one for Beats Electronics, the “premium” audio production company started by rapper Dr. Dre. A marriage made in heaven, this allowed HTC phones to take advantage of “better” speakers in their smartphones, though many average consumers (myself included) would be darned if they could tell a measurable difference. Well, all that has ended today as HTC has announced that they will be ending their partnership, with Beats buying back the 25 percent stake HTC had previously bought in the company.

HTC has been faltering in the market lately, with the company’s profits plummeting more than 80% in the company’s last quarterly results. It stands to reason that HTC sought to end the partnership following the failure of some of their key products in the marketplace, including the HTC One and the HTC 8X, both of which contain Beats hardware. HTC didn’t, however, outright claim that any future partnerships with Beats was strictly out of the question, suggesting that the two may share more product launches before the relationship is completely over.

Meanwhile, Beats has been rumored to be expanding with the expected launch of an exclusive online music streaming service to combat the likes of Pandora, Spotify, and iTunes Radio. The company is also expected to partner with a new investor to help the company through a period of growth. Beats has become one of the world’s most popular names in audio equipment over the last couple of years, and it makes sense that the company would want to capitalize on that status as much as possible.