At the height of CE Week 2014, headphone and tech accessory maker Monster showed off a number of products that it previously announced during CES 2014. But before getting to the meat of his presentation, Monster CEO Noel Lee let loose an even meatier comment on his old friends at Beats headphones.
"I think we created a monster," Lee told a small group of press and industry folk. "We created a Frankenstein."
Of course, Lee was referring to Monster's partnership with Beats that dissolved in early 2012, which spurred the former's own headphones division that it showed off with gusto in New York during CE Week.
Beats went on to amass great fame and market share, leading up to its enormous Apple acquisition for $3 billion in cash and stock. So naturally, Lee is going to have something to say about that.
Lee went on to question Beats's valuation on the nature of it being just a headphone company, but continued with explaining what he thinks is Apple's intent on developing an ecosystem in the music space of both hardware and software.
Finally, before getting to Monster's product line, Lee posited that his company sits at the most profitable end of the music industry, given the free-first nature of streaming services versus the high profit margins of technology products, like headphones.
Something tells us that Lee and Dr. Dre aren't exactly pen pals anymore.
- Exactly what did Apple buy? Read our Beats Studio Wireless headphones review
