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Monster took the rap duo's vague audio aspirations and pointed them in one very lucrative direction: high-end headphones. Bose was something your dad bought. Everything else was either crap or too obscure and complex for consumers to pick out. "Let's build headphones together," Noel decreed.

Love fest or no, this was never going to be a Steve and Woz moment of geek kinship. This was business from the start—and while Noel knows it now (Jimmy wanted to "own both ends," he says), Monster didn't show much acumen when it mattered. Monster wanted to jumpstart its headphone business. Badly. In the turmoil of the mid-00s, Dre and Jimmy needed to find something other than records to monetize. Badly. But the money arrangement was destined to be dominated by Iovine, a man who'd gone head to head with Steve Jobs, and ran a music empire—not some small deluxe cable firm. The Monsters knew that if they could haess Dre's "entertainment and sports" contacts they could launch their company into the mainstream. They were right, but they were also woefully underprepared for the path to success; in the process, they blew almost every business decision possible.

onster and Beats have brought their long running headphone partnership to an end, marking a big change in the direction that Dre's company could be taking.? The split is the end of what has been a 5 year partnership with Monster, a well known cable and high end Hi-Fi manufacturer. The expertise gained will remain, but the decision not to renew the contract with Monster will likely change the way that Beats are manufactured. Those who enjoy the look of the Beats headphones will probably find they follow a similar style, particularly given that design has been a major reason for their popularity.?

HTC owns the largest stake in Beats at $300 million, but is not the only company involved in the technology. HP uses Beats Audio in its laptops to bring better quality sound to its portables.? The real future of Beats is on the mobile. Integration with handsets like the HTC Sensation XE and XL will likely continue as the company further focusses on smartphones. Plans to expand to fitness and TV are also in the works. Do you think the Beats/Monster split is going to be a problem? Let us know in the Idea below