Beats by Dre. Why Apple paid $3 billion for some pretty average engineering

64% of high end headphones purchased today are Beats by Dre.

Apple bought Beats by Dre for c $3 billion. With their legendary focus on engineering amazing products, what magic are they buying into? Are the headphones better than the competition? Absolutely not. If you listen to anyone who knows about sound, they will tell you that alternative headphones of equivalent quality are much cheaper, though you might be pushed to name a brand.

This is  a great case study of a business that takes marketing seriously.