"I really don't know what [Apple's] motivation is. [Beats Electronics] make headphones and they make portable Blutooth speakers — which are available by the thousands from every company and his brother. To my knowledge, there's no magical special technology that they're acquiring, no special business model that they don't have."

"I'm really not sure what Apple's up to," adds Pogue. "In fact, I'm really not sure what Apple's up to overall."

Pogue points to the bigger issues at Apple in the last few years. "Everybody gave the new leadership a pass when Steve Jobs died saying: well, give them a couple years to find their new groove. But people are starting to get impatient."

He says the company still stands for his favorite things when it comes to great products — beauty, elegance, a sense of magic. "Everything they do is still exquisite and they're leaders in the field," he adds. "My main machine is a Macbook air, and there's no other laptop in the world that can touch it."

But he's skeptical that the company will be able to continue on as they have been. "Apple had become a source of entertainment and pleasure and news — just in the new ideas that they put forth every couple of years. And that's the part I think we're not seeing lately," Pogue argues. "My fingers are crossed for Apple but I'm really not seeing the same innovation engine that they once were."