It looks like Meizu may announce a few more partnerships with brands that specialize in other consumer electronics at this week’s “Connected” launch, with AKG Acoustics likely among them.
Meizu’s “Connected” launch on the 28th is getting a lot of press as the launch pad for the 5-inch Meizu m1 mini, but it is looking more likely that the mini phone will be just one small part of the event.
Meizu has already announced a partnership with Haier (a large Chinese white goods maker), is rumored to be releasing a smart router and even a health monitor, and alongside those rumors comes the possibility of a collaboration with acoustics specialist AKG.
A post from the official Meizu Weibo account suggests something between AKG and Meizu could be unveiled on January 28. The pairing of the two companies would make perfect sense after the release of the audio-focused Meizu MX4 Pro, and as the company looks to diversify its range.
For those of you not familiar with AKG, it is an Austrian company specializing in acoustics products, including microphones and headphones. Its headphones in particular have been extremely popular with music professionals over the years.
Who is AKG?
AKG is one of the oldest names in professional audio. The company was founded in Vienna in 1947 as Akustische und Kino-Geräte, which translates roughly as “acoustic and cinema equipment.” In its early years it supplied cinemas with loudspeakers, projectors and light meters, before moving into microphones and headphones.
Its first headphone, the K120 DYN, arrived in 1949, and its D12 microphone, introduced in 1953, made the company famous around the world. Later microphones such as the C414 and C12 became studio staples, and AKG headphones found their way onto the heads of engineers, broadcasters and musicians everywhere. In 1994 AKG was bought by the American audio group Harman International, and in 2010 it received a Technical Grammy award for its contribution to recording.
By the mid 2010s AKG was also working hard on the consumer side, partnering with artists such as Quincy Jones and the DJ Tiësto on signature headphone lines. A partnership with a fast growing Chinese phone brand fit neatly into that strategy.
Why audio was a natural fit for Meizu
Meizu did not start as a phone company. When Jack Wong founded it in 2003, it made MP3 players, and its M6 Mini Player was one of its best known products, even sold outside China by Dane-Elec. Music was part of the brand’s DNA long before the first Meizu smartphone arrived in 2007.
That heritage carried into its phones. Since Flyme 3.0, Meizu’s software had included Dirac HD Sound tuning to improve audio through headphones, and the MX4 Pro, announced in November 2014, was pitched as a phone for people who cared about sound. Adding a respected headphone partner would give Meizu a way to prove that claim, rather than just print it on the box.
The bigger picture: Meizu “Connected”
The AKG rumor was one piece of a much larger idea. Meizu wanted its phones to be the center of a small ecosystem, with partner products for the home, the wrist and the ears. Haier was the home appliance partner, and the MX4 launch had already introduced a first batch of “Connected” devices, including a wearable made by Chinese company InWatch. AKG would complete the picture on the audio side.
It was an ambitious plan for a company Meizu’s size, and it borrowed from what the biggest brands were doing. Apple had bought Beats in 2014, Samsung had its own growing range of audio accessories, and Chinese rivals were starting to build ecosystems of their own.
What happened next
The collaboration was real, but it arrived later than this report expected. The “Connected” launch on January 28 introduced the Meizu m1 and the Haier partnership, while AKG was only teased. It took until April 2015 for Meizu to confirm on Weibo that AKG was the partner behind its upcoming headphones, as we reported in Meizu and AKG headphones confirmed.
AKG itself went through big changes in the years that followed. In 2016 Harman announced it would close AKG’s Vienna headquarters, manufacturing and engineering facilities in 2017 and move the brand’s headquarters to California. In 2017 Samsung Electronics bought Harman, which made AKG part of Samsung. That same year a group of former AKG engineers in Austria set up a new company, Austrian Audio, to compete with their old employer. Today AKG earphones are familiar to many people simply because Samsung has bundled AKG-tuned earphones with some of its Galaxy phones.
For more on the launch where all of this was supposed to happen, see our report on the Meizu m1 officially released for 699 Yuan.
Why it still matters
Brand partnerships in audio are everywhere now, and it is fair to ask what they mean. Sometimes the partner designs the hardware; sometimes it tunes an existing product; sometimes it simply licenses its name. The Meizu and AKG story is a useful reminder to read past the logo. When you shop for earphones or a phone that promises great sound, look for independent reviews and measurements rather than the name on the box.
A few questions are worth asking about any co-branded audio product. Who actually designed the drivers and the tuning? Is the partner’s involvement described in any detail, or only as a logo? Does the product come with the same warranty and support as the partner’s own range? And, most importantly, does it sound good to you? Fit and comfort matter as much as any brand name, so try before you buy whenever you can.
