The odds of the new system having Airplay: zero :-(

Anyway... AirPlay is going to make it (more) difficult for B&O...

The death of B&O will come from Apple.

Wherever they are in competition with Apple (MP3 players, Mobile phone), they've had to give up, as Apple also has great design and ease of use, but at a cheaper price point.  

The day Apple produces a TV with mutimedia capabilities... there will be only one thing left to B&O, and that will be the speakers.

p.

If the new ipod speaker dock from B&O does not support Apple´s new airplay, this new B&O product is dead before it comes out!

/Räuber

PhilLondon wrote:

The death of B&O will come from Apple.

Wherever they are in competition with Apple (MP3 players, Mobile phone), they've had to give up, as Apple also has great design and ease of use, but at a cheaper price point.  

The day Apple produces a TV with mutimedia capabilities... there will be only one thing left to B&O, and that will be the speakers.

p.

This is, fortunately, not the case and showcases the lack of understanding of the B&O core client and the custom AV industry at large often displayed on these boards. It's like saying "Trek has come out with their best bike yet. Looks like Lamborghini will have to shudder their factories." The only turf we've seeded has been turf that wasn't ours to begin with: portable devices. 

The AppleTV became even

Their Ipod speaker for me is returning to the old crappy way. That has nothing to do with serious audio. Maybe they have volume on ythis selling it in the Apple store. Maybe they will add airplay in a year or 2.

Airplay is not even in the market, we do not know how well it will work. I can stream form Itunes today onto the Airport Express or Apple TV and fact is, very often it does not really work. I.e. connection breaks, delays, etc.

Actually I stopped using my airports expresses long ago. Airplay is nothing more then bringing what Itunes can do to IOS 4 devices.

in fact, I would be really surprised if it wouldnt be working on the older ATV.

Actually, Airplay allows you to stream audio, HD-content video, photos and other digital content to every A/V peripheral on your WiFi or Ethernet network, controlled from wherever you are that is connected to that network. It requires either ATV-units or Macs that are connected to the peripheral (television or speaker.)

Real Hi-Fi is not Wi-Fi ! 😕

steph wrote:

Real Hi-Fi is not Wi-Fi ! 😕

Why does this make me think of the British motor industry? I am afraid that manufacturers of Hi-Fi and AV products generally cannot sit still. I agree with Trip that B&O can cater for an esoteric market but they also have to deal with the middle classes. This is the type of person who is looking to justify why he is paying an inflated price. He will also be attracted to a brand by the lower end and then work up. You cannot survive being the size of B&O and just cater for the super rich. If the lower end products do not have the features expected and are simply rebranded other makes, he will not buy them.

At present B&O sell a good range of speakers and TVs. I think you can justify the price differential in most cases. However they must keep adapting and products like the iPod dock will be competing for business - I agree it is unlikely to have Airplay compatibility and I think this is worrying. We don't want another BS6 scenario - too little, too late. It needs a unique selling feature and simply being pretty won't cut it. I am looking forward to seeing what it offers.

B&O have wonderful televisions and speakers, required peripherals for enjoying content - whether analog or digital. If they focus on ensuring that these are top-notch, and that they continue to be styled to be as outstanding as they have been for decades now, then that bit is sorted.

Then B&O has to recognize that its forays into BeoMedia and similar IT-components is never going to pan out. Developments are moving too fast, from too many other actors. Instead, make certain that your users easily can connect their B&O peripherals to the outlets for content. A major player in that market is definitely Apple, but there are others. However, with yesterday's announcement that Netflix is making all of their movies available through AppleTV, it's pretty definite what's happening.

The statement "real Hi-Fi is not Wi-Fi" doesn't make any sense. I can and do download high-resolution tracks from Linn Records, HD-Tracks, 2L and other providers (Naxos is making major portions of its catalogue available in high-res), and that download happens with WiFi as a component in the chain, to the storage medium I am using.

Airport Express will transmit 16/44.1, but not high-res. But that's not a problem for me, as my MacMini accesses the files outside the AE, as a file that is unpacked in the Mini before being sent to my BL5s.
HD-films in 5.1 DD surround will use the same WiFi, and be played back wherever you want in your network.

Yesterday, Apple removed the CD from its iTunes logo, declaring that container for content to be passé. The new generation of users, and potential consumers with purchase power to consider B&O, will not just expect but demand the integration that Apple is providing, and will enjoy being able to have that playback convenience, coupled with excellent quality, through the screens and speakers they purchase. Providers that make integration simple, while mining the high-quality options available, will be able to sell more speakers and screens to this market.

B&O's future lies in ensuring the best possible sound and image environment where people are watching and listening, not in trying to outdo Apple and others in the digital component area.
The B&O room-adjustment features presently coming from automotive and into the living rooms could be a major attention getter, bringing people into stores; as could acoustic lenses in active speakers - a field that B&O still dominates, but hasn't known how to properly exploit.

The way to think of this is that a B&O customer could enjoy the wonders of a three-star Michelin restaurant, at the table, while B&O sorts out how all the digital and other content is channeled, out in the kitchen -- while that kitchen is connected to the best content in the world, for the customer's convenience, whenever they choose to take part of it.

That's in the spirit of what once made B&O great.