As far as owners/investors go, HTC is proving itself to be a very gracious one. The company invested a whopping $300 million into the Beats by Dr. Dre brand, giving it majority control of the hardware and software produced. HTC promised to run the company as a separate enterprise while taking advantage of its audio expertise, and lo and behold, it has. HTC announced today that it intends to open up the Beats APIs for third-party developers to use in their apps.
In HTC’s words, the company will “allow third-party developers to harness the potential of Beats Audio and bring that top-notch audio experience to their own apps.” That’s great news for developers of music apps and services, not to mention anyone who owns one of the high-end HTC handsets that feature Beats Audio, like the Sensation XL. Previously Beats integration had been limited to specially-coded first party music apps.
HTC has been investing a lot lately: in addition to the Beats purchase, they bought a stake in online game streaming company OnLive and bought the kid-friendly browser developer Inquisitive Minds. Like Beats, HTC has said that they’ll integrate their partners’ services into their smartphones and tablets while still operating them like independent companies, a tactic that has served Amazon well in its own acquisitions. The forthcoming Beats APIs are a promising start to this strategy, and a good indication that non-HTC owners will continue to enjoy the services of Beats, Inquisitive Minds and OnLive.
Yeah if HTC does their usual bang up job like they have with their Digital Stylus API and android device software updates (do you hear my cynicism here?) this will be just peachy…………..