Apple is accused of corporate bullying after reportedly booting rival headphone maker Monster from its “Made for iPhone” accessory program.
Monster claims the move is in retaliation for an ongoing lawsuit against Beats, which is now owned by Apple. Monster was the original contract manufacturer of Beats-branded headphones. The move could seriously impact Monster’s headphone business.
Considering the headphone market is a $2 billion industry in the United States, there’s plenty of money to be lost without Apple’s support.
Without the ability to take advantage of Apple’s MFi program, Monster accessories can’t carry the Made for iPhone logo that verifies they work together, nor does Monster have access to the tools and support Apple offers to other third-party manufacturers.
The story comes from The Wall Street Journal, which reports that Apple’s chief litigation counsel Noreel Krall told Monster’s general counsel David Tognotti that the agreement within the MFi program is coming to an end on May 5.
According to Tognotti, Krall said that because of the lawsuit, the relationship between Apple and Monster is not “mutually beneficial.”
“It shows a side of Apple that consumers don’t see very often,” Monster’s Tognotti told The Wall Street Journal, expressing his disapproval of Apple’s actions.
“Apple can be a bully,” he added.
Monster’s lawsuit alleges that Beats stole its headphone technology and was holding out on profits owed after Apple’s acquisition.
Monster was stopped working with Beats in 2011 when the latter sold 51 percent of the company to HTC and moved around roles and ownership. Apple then acquired Beats in 2014 for a cool $3 billion.
Monster can reportedly still sell MFi certified products until September, but the manufacturing of new Monster accessories is no longer allowed. This means the company needs to rework all packaging that includes a “Made for iPhone” label, plus redesign or altogether stop making products that include licensed technology from Apple.
George Tinari has covered Apple and technology for over six years. On the rare occasion that he’s not sitting in front of his laptop, you can find him eating, awkwardly socializing, listening to music or singing along loudly to said music. You can also follow George on Twitter if you need more complaints and sarcasm in your timeline.
18 responses to “Apple is accused of bullying Monster over Beats lawsuit”
Honestly Monster(TM)(R)(C) is lame. They charge $100 for $6 HDMI Cables.
And what do they expect? If you sue someone they are not gonna be happy with you. And if they have the choice to no longer license something to you. they won’t. It’s not really being a bully it’s getting you back for being a ahole.
You idiot. They have their basic entry level HDMI cable which is essetentially the same as your nonname discounted $6 cable. It’s only $20, it’s called the Monster Basic HDMI cable. The $100 HDMI cables that idiots compare to have much higher bandwidth (18Gbps) vs 10.2Gbps for the $6 cable. The $6 cable is a no name product, the Monster is a brand name product. Seriously, you need to grow the F up.
If all you want to spend is $6 on some cheap cable that proabably won’t last very long, then go right ahead, there are plenty of cheap no name “made in China” cables that are cheap. But name brand mfg that have engineers on staff that design products, marketing expenses, etc., they have to charge more money. The El Cheapo brands are just cheaply made knockoffs. and yes, there are difference in HDMI cables. You have several factors that will make one more expensive. There is bandwidth, length (the cheap cables won’t work at longer lengths), in wall certification, with ethernet, and less jitter for the audio portion. Yeah, most average consumer with a cheap home theater system, an XBox and a TV that’s not doing 4K with 60fps, don’t need expensive cables. but there IS a market for people that do. People will buy what they want to and feel comfortable buying.
Pulling the Made for iDevices is a SLEEZY ploy that Apple’s doing. They are being chicken $hits in this case. They need to wake the F up and admit they screwed up when they bought Beats and if the lawsuit has merit, then pay the money and move the F on and don’t play Mr. I’m Apple bullshit. That pisses off customers, potential customers and even me, a long time Apple customer. Apple’s NOT perfect, and these type of tactics is chicken $hit.
Monster and Apple have been long term business partners and Apple, regardless of how much money they have in the bank and how much business they do, they STILL cannot go around with this sort of tactic as it WILL eventually backfire on them. If I was Tim Cook, I’d fire Iovine, Dre, pay the money to Monster if it has merit and based on what I read in the case filing, it does. Monster designed and was building Beats headphones.
I understand they have the cheaper cables now but they where crazy enough to sell $99 cables at one time. At thats what a lot remember. If they want to erase this they should refund the 10 people who actully bought those cables ~$80 each.
Also HDMI uses a digital signal so it is pretty hard to screw that up and I find El Cheapos (as long as they cost $7-12) do the trick. And if you get monoprice cables they are even better.
I get that it is beats (I honesty don’t know why apple bought beats *sigh*)
It would be nice if certification was more open to everyone who payed and whos product passes tests. but this is apple. they have a way of doing things and would likely not go for that.
Overall its a mess. I feel that was not a nice thing to do.
But Monster slants my viewpoint so I am a litte mean to them.
But I am not a huge fan of beats really either.
Monster is NOT suing Apple. They are suing Beats and HTC because of the slimy things they did, it’s just that they submitted the lawsuit after the buyout. Apple should not treat Monster any differently than any other 3rd party partner. Monster isn’t suing Apple, they are suing Beats and HTC. Repeat that 10 times until you get it through you thick skull. Apple shouldn’t treat Monster any differently. Monster’s beef wasn’t with Apple, it’s with Beats and HTC.
Monster can keep it’s overpriced electronics. What did they expect. You sue us and you expect us to play nice with you? Nope nope nope. And since it isn’t a technology that falls under the FRAND rules, probably not much they can do about it.
Monster can go to hell.
You should read the case without your Apple bias. Seriously, that’s how ALL cases should be treated. If you can’t remove your Apple bias, then you shouldn’t be making any comments.
I guess this comes under the heading don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Well don’t sue apple if you want to be making money off them.
They aren’t. that’s the problem. Read the case until you really understand what they are suing over.
They are suing beats, DRE, iovine, and HTC for a “sham” transaction to muscle monster out of the ownership. Monster owner sold his 5% steak in beats before apple bought beats as well, so he personally lost around 100 million from apple transaction and monster lost beats part ownership with HTC transaction.
three of the four people/companies getting sued are part of apple. So off course apple takes the bill.
It’s like if someone sues nest now, they would be suing Google, right.
Or someone sues loop pay, they are suing Samsung coz Samsung owns loop pay now.
I don’t blame Monster for suing Apple over pulling the MFi labeling. Monster was in compliance, so there was no need for them to pull the licensing. Plus Monster has a lot of inventory of MFi labeled product and now they have to eat that? BS. Apple should pay for this chicken $hit move. Tim gets a downgrade for this. This is just bad business on Apple’s part. Tim needs to get over his ego on this. Beats was being slimy against Monster and the case needs to run its course and Apple needs to either inform the Beats personnel to either pay up or go to court and see what the jury says.
Message to Tim Cook: You screwed up by buying Beats, obviously you didn’t do your due diligence on buying the turkey. You should have contacted Bose and Monster to find out if they had any pending issues with Beats before you finished the buyout deal and if so, then you should have either bowed out of buying Beats, got them to settle with them and paid a LOT less money for Beats knowing it’s going to cost Apple more money with these potential lawsuits. From the looks of it, Iovine and Dre sold Apple a bunch of crap and Apple’s afraid to admit it.
Totally agree!!
I have to agree beats really kinda sucks. What a waste to buy them. I guess they just wanted the music guys to help them create a streaming service?
Monster sucks too though, sorry to burst your bubble.
Nobody should care about snake-oil salesmen like Monster. Ridiluly them openly and pummel them out of existence. Nothing of value will be lost.
Do you work for monster? lol
Monster is THE patent bullytroll. One small company, one time, stood up to them. It was a great read — and I can’t be bothered to Google it.