????音頻設備廠商節拍電子公司（Beats Electronics）即將收購音樂訂閱服務公司MOG？前者由于深得說唱明星德瑞博士和電音天后Lady Gaga等大名鼎鼎的流行音樂界人士青睞而廣受歡迎。兩家公司都沒有確認這筆交易，但過去整整一周，網上有關這一消息的傳聞卻甚囂塵上。本文將分析這筆交易的意義，主要是從Beats母公司宏達電（HTC）的角度出發。

????上述三家公司都稱得上實力強大，名聲響亮，但是每家公司在各自所處市場均被眾多對手圍攻，競爭可謂慘烈。如若強強聯手，定能成功突圍。

????總部位于臺灣的手機廠商宏達電始創于1997年。2008年，由于它依托于谷歌（Google）安卓平臺的手機外型時尚而聲名鵲起，成為手機市場上令人生畏的強大對手。那時，雖然蘋果公司（Apple）的iPhone在智能手機市場一枝獨秀，宏達電手機依然憑借超大的屏幕和其他強大功能搶走了不少用戶。它是出其不意贏得消費者芳心的黑馬王子，2011年第三季度，無數消費者正翹首盼望新iPhone發布時，宏達電一度成為美國市場最大的智能手機廠商。顯然，該公司的抱負遠不止于手機。據報道，2011年夏天，它以3億美元的價格收購了Beats的股票控制權。

????但是，宏達電很快從天堂墜回人間。三星（Samsung）和摩托羅拉（Motorola）等競爭對手在產品功能上緊緊咬住它不放，從質量和價格兩方面則對其業務形成兩面夾擊。市場研究機構NPD集團的數據顯示，蘋果通過將iPhone向網絡運營商斯普林特（Sprint）開放，侵吞了宏達電在斯普林特網絡的大部分市場份額。

????此時，MOG也正處境艱難。在線音樂市場大概起源于2001年，彼時Napster的問世引發了一片混戰。但是，十幾年來，這一市場已逐漸形成了嚴格的層級系統。現在，通過流式服務，用戶即可從計算機服務器訪問大型音樂庫，本人無需再擁有這些歌曲本身。MOG排在Rhapsody和Spotify之后，屬于數字音樂服務領域的第三梯隊。

????作為音樂博客網絡，MOG創建于2005年，目錄中共有1,400萬首歌曲，通過手機收聽歌曲的使用費為10美元/月，與競爭對手收費基本持平。美國唱片業協會（Recording Industry Association of America）表示，在2010年，也就是在線音樂服務業進行了數據統計的最近的年份，在線音樂服務業總收入約為2.01億美元。市場研究機構ABI預計，到2016年，全球將有1.61億名用戶通過手機收聽音樂。

????三家公司中，與宏達電和MOG相比，Beats的實力更為強大。該公司由嘻哈說唱音樂的老將德瑞博士和唱片業高管吉米?拉文創建于2008年。除了耳機業務之外，該公司還向其他企業銷售“音樂壓縮”技術。借助這一技術，音樂在被數字化成聲音文件時能夠保持原有的質感。Beats將該技術的許可權賣給了惠普（Hewlett-Packard）等公司，惠普在其高端筆記本電腦產品中就應用了這一音樂壓縮技術。

????Is audio equipment maker Beats Electronics -- popularized by big-name celebrities like Dr. Dre and Lady Gaga -- on the verge of acquiring music subscription service MOG? Neither company would confirm a tie-up, but rumors to that effect have been gathering steam online all week. Here's why such a deal would make sense -- most of all for Beats parent HTC.

????All three have strong businesses with break-through brands, but each find itself in crowded markets with fierce competition. Bringing together could help them in the tussle.

????The Taiwan-based phone maker HTC, founded in 1997, seemingly came out of nowhere in 2008, breaking out as a formidable presence in the cellular market thanks to its slick handsets based on Google's (GOOG) Android platform. At a time when Apple's (AAPL) iPhone dominated the smartphone spotlight, HTC managed to pump out phones with larger screens and other glitzy features. It was a surprise darling with consumers too, briefly becoming the largest smartphone maker in the U.S. market in the third quarter of 2011 as shoppers waited for a new iPhone model to debut. In a sign of its ambitions beyond phones, HTC bought a controlling stake in Beats for a reported $300 million in the summer of that year.

????But HTC has come back down to earth. Competitors like Samsung and Motorola caught onto its playbook, squeezing its business on quality and price. Apple, meanwhile, hurt HTC when it introduced the iPhone to Sprint, eating up much of HTC's market share with the carrier, according to the NPD group, a research firm.

????MOG is a tough spot too. The online music market may have begun with the chaos of Napster in 2001, but it has developed a rigid caste system. Streaming services now allow users to access large music libraries from a computer server instead of owning the songs themselves. MOG is third-tier to Rhapsody and Spotify.

????Founded in 2005 as a music blog network, MOG has a catalog of 14 million songs and charges $10 a month for mobile access, roughly equivalent to its competitors. Online music subscription revenues were about $201 million in 2010, the most recent year the data is available, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Research firm ABI predicts 161 million subscribers worldwide will be accessing music through mobile phones by 2016.

????Of the three brands, Beats appears the strongest. Aside from its headphone operation, Beats, which was founded in 2008 by hip hop veteran Dr. Dre and record executive Jimmy Iovine, also sells its "music compression" technology to other businesses. This allows music to keep its crispness when it is digitized into sound files. Beats licenses this technology to companies like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which uses it in some of its high-end notebook lines.