Will Apple be forced to up the sound quality of the iPhone?

[patch5674]

I was today reading about HTC, who are one of Apple's main competitors in the android space, well they have tied up with HTC and have already confirmed that this tie up will be more than skin deep with Beats audio playing an active role in developing new audio hardware inside their phones.

Because from the reviews I have read the beats hardware/software in HP's envy laptops makes the sound quality through headphones outstanding and far better than a MacBook Pros this could well apply to the phones also

Basically the iTunes/iPhone combo is the best for getting music from a CD to your device. End Of. (only when manually managed hah) My thoughts are do you think this will make Apple make the iPhones sound quality better because it is far from class leading the new BlackBerry 9900 is far superior and so is Samsungs Galaxy S II.

What do you guys think?

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I think the iPhone could stand to have better audio hardware, but I also know that Beats isn't universally considered to be all that great. A lot of professional reviews actually hold those headphones in pretty low regard.

 

[patch5674]

Yes the beats headphones aren't very good but it is a very powerful brand what with all the celeb and sportstars spotted wearing them etc.

I suppose my main concern is just generally the iPhone audio quality is not very good there are better sounding phones out there but none have the iTunes and forthcoming iTunes match capability.

 

[schweb]

Considering the audio quality of the iPhone doesn't seem to be a hot button issue for most people (at least not when you look at what people complain about), I'm not so sure you'll find Apple necessarily looking to spend more money to up the audio quality rather than focus on some other aspects.

 

[Slydude]

Have to agree there. Although improvements in sound quality would be nice I bet they are focused primarily on other improvements/new features. I wouldn't mind improvements in sound but that would not be the feature that makes me upgrade my iPhone. it certainly wasn't the thing that caused me to get an iPhone either. I got tired off the synching hassles with my Palm.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Yes the beats headphones aren't very good but it is a very powerful brand what with all the celeb and sportstars spotted wearing them etc.

Apple doesn't engage in gimmicks like that. When a company touts someone else's product as a reason to buy theirs, they are saying that their product can't stand otherwise on its own merits.

I suppose my main concern is just generally the iPhone audio quality is not very good there are better sounding phones out there but none have the iTunes and forthcoming iTunes match capability.

All I care to see is an improved speaker with an emphasis on voice for using the speakerphone. For playing music, a good speaker dock or headphones will win over any built-in speaker improvements they could come up with.

 

[robduckyworth]

I wish they'd just remove the ability to play music through a speaker. The amount of chavs here that think we want to hear their crap music is unbelievable.

But seriously....

Beats are a gimmick. Macbook Pro sound cards hold up well until you start whacking them through professional monitors. At which point, the Beats soundcard in that HP would do the same.

 

[osxx]

I have not noticed the sound quality being bad but my playlists are in lossless with my favorites and I use U.E.'s sfi5pros for earbuds.

 

[chas_m]

I'm an unsophisticated prole and both my music playing (though headphones) and my phone calls (holding iPhone up to ear) sound just fine to me. I've not had an instance where I ever thought to myself "this really sounds bad" ... ever.

Clearly, I must be half-deaf.