Beats

Earlier tonight HTC announced, via AllThingsD, that it would be investing $300M in Beats Electronics, LLC, creators of the famous Beats by Dr. Dre brand. Beats is still a privately held company so there's no indication exactly how much of the company will be in HTC's control, although Beats mentioned it would continue to operate independently of HTC and alongside current partners including HP. It's unclear exactly how much Beats contributes to the audio path of products that carry its brand. HP's TouchPad with Beats Audio for example used a slightly more featured audio codec, limiting Beats' involvement to software alone. HTC likely hopes to gain audio street cred via the Beats brand rather than an unequaled technological advantage as competing companies should be...