B&O's Apple-denial is such a mystery.

What I find the most puzzling, is that the companies' products are actually synergistic, and would deliver an even better end-result if used together properly. And as to their form, they are complementary.

When I place an iPad/iPhone/Macbook next to my BeoVision 8, BL5, BL3, Beosystem 6500 - they're all in the same family. A B&O customer wouldn't feel they got a strange, generic remote in their hand.

And imagine if B&O had embraced the possibility, and had created something like iTeleport married to an app that was designed to control B&O hardware, with B&O designed look&feel? It would have driven customers into stores in a stampede. Instead we get hobbled products - a BeoVision 8 that is launched without the curtain, and without 5.1DD decoding; a BeoSound 4 that doesn't play DVDs (when in fact it has a drive which can); etc.

Notice that iTeleport makes it possible for iPad users to remotely control both Mac and Windows computers - which means that all B&O customers easily could control their digital content playback from their computers to their B&O A/V units, screens and speakers - from a fantastic interface which also gave them complete freedom of control over their computers, in an easy and intuitive manner that is totally B&O in the Jensen age.

Couple that to a B&O hardware app which switches components on/off, selects sources, controls variables, curtains, home movies, lighting and everything else, but with a graphically wonderful two-way interaction ...

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x58K4fA9wXI]

iTeleport's own, somewhat exhuberant presentation video:

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMjXtT-k9jg]

Note - iTeleport hasn't been made by Apple, and could easily have been made by B&O, if their thinking had been in that direction. I'm sorry, Trip. I don't buy your objections - I have a state-of-the-art playback system at home using B&O products to create images and sound, but where I've had to use components from other companies to achieve state-of-the-art, when that could easily have been supplied by B&O.

I have hopes when it comes to the new CEO, but B&O falling behind here was completely unnecessary, and is due to a strange corporate culture where there are a lot of "unmentionables" that are sabotaging the end result their products could deliver.

B&O really do need a shake up.

Their insular attitude will be their ultimate downfall.I just don't think they will be around in 5 years time...

They just don't seem to understand that Mac-centric owners are a large percentage of their buying [now and potential] demographic,so should do all they can to tap into this rich vein.

The residual [ex CEO] PC bias is costing them sales.No doubt it is still rife within the company.Not rocket science to catch up with the curve.All it takes is a change in mindset.

It often seems  to be too little too late,or almost but not quite.With their elevated pricing structure it just isn't good enough.

I think B and O is paying attention to Apple. If not, why would they be coming out with the iPort, apparently working with Sonance, as mentioned in another thread here?  Allows control of an iPhone or iPad with a Beo 4 through the puc as well as seeing the display on TVs.

One could argue this falls into the too little too late category.

They seem to be 5 plus years behind the curve.

Lets hope we are in for a period of change.

Razlaw wrote:

I think B and O is paying attention to Apple. If not, why would they be coming out with the iPort, apparently working with Sonance, as mentioned in another thread here?  Allows control of an iPhone or iPad with a Beo 4 through the puc as well as seeing the display on TVs.

They haven't really "come out" with the iPort.

It's a devivce that's been around for years.  They have just made public the fact there's PUC control.

Forgive me, when I read that B and O were "releasing" the iPort I did not know it had been around for years. I also did not realize they were keeping the puc a secret. As the product allows the display to be seen on TVs throughout the house it must have Masterlink which again I was unaware of. Will have to go look at the iPort web page to find it.

Soundproof (and others),

Please understand that I'm not against Airplay in any way, I'm simply pointing out its flaws. Apple's a great product. I'm typing on my brand new MacBook Air (3rd one), and can see an AppleTV, iPad, and 3 iPhones just by looking around the room I'm in. I'm in no way opposed to the and most of my gripes are minor when compared with the chore of using Windows machines.

However you have to understand the your own experiences are limited and even if you were to add up all participating users of BeoWorld you would have a statistically insignificant fraction of Apple's user base. To say something like "I have never had to _____" doesn't speak to anything beyond your own customer experience. If you've been satisfied, that's wonderful, but please don't make the mistake of generalizing your experience to the wider population. 

Also don't conflate user satisfaction with raw data on defective rates. You can have very high instances of defects and replacements and still maintain high satisfaction. Apple proves this.

And, because some here don't seem clear on what I'm talking about: a switched on computer is fine if you have an iMac in an office. What if you only have 3-4 laptops? Where should I leave an open laptop so that I can listen to music? On my kitchen counter? In my tub? Just asking. It's clearly not a big deal to some, but I'd prefer to use my BeoSound 5.

And streaming video does hobble network traffic. Splitting your bands for a subnet can work in a single family home, but in an MDU you'll likely have to use 5ghz just to use the internet without frustration meaning an investment in an entirely different subnet and access points for AV distribution. Not a bad thing, but not as easy or cheap as it's made to sound. Even Kaleidescape slows down network traffic, so it's not an Apple thing. Claiming it doesn't affect performance is a little foolish.

So I'm not even taking that strong a stance, just representing the point of view that not everyone is satisfied with Apple as a solution for infrastructure. 

soundproof wrote:

B&O was unfortunate enough to hire a CEO who was in bed with Microsoft

Whereas it is the job of the Board to identify a CEO with enough of a vision, it is difficult to see how a bunch of old Northern Europeans, back in 2001, could have seen that they were betting on a loser horse (Microsoft):

1.  Other than France to a limited extent, Apple was never really popular in Europe.

2.  In 2001, all "correct-thinking" European people, especially old people, thought Microsoft was the end-all, be-all of technology.  Herd mentality.

3.  Boards are made up of old people who don't understand technology.  The poor idiots thought Microsoft was the future.

4.  Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens, all of the Euro "tech leaders" married themselves to subpar, non-standard Microsoft technologies.  Nokia sort of saw the light with Symbian, and staked a bit of ground on it, but was in the end unable to overcome their own overwhelming corporate herd mentality.

So the B&O Board's mistake was almost inevitable.  Almost.  If they had kept in mind taste, the soul of what B&O represents, they could have avoided their mistake.  Aesthetics (understood as a whole, not just appearance) could have prevented them from making the horrible herd-mentality mistake they made.  But the dullard B&O Board evidently forgot that they were supposed to have good taste...  And so they hired a Microsoft-worshipping loser.  They totally missed the great Jobs quote from 1996:

The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products.

The B&O Board is far from unique, though.  Nokia just hired another guy with no taste.  They are doomed, too.

TripEnglish wrote:

And, because some here don't seem clear on what I'm talking about: a switched on computer is fine if you have an iMac in an office. What if you only have 3-4 laptops? Where should I leave an open laptop so that I can listen to music? On my kitchen counter? In my tub? Just asking. It's clearly not a big deal to some, but I'd prefer to use my BeoSound 5.

"Some of us" understood exactly what you were talking about - you need a switched on computer - in your laptop senario above probably an additional "server-type" computer makes sense whether it be an iMac, PC or BM5. Your original post implied that a BS5 solution didn't require a powered up computer at all when it clearly does - a £2K+, dedicated PC.

XavierItzmann wrote:

soundproof wrote:

B&O was unfortunate enough to hire a CEO who was in bed with Microsoft

 

Whereas it is the job of the Board to identify a CEO with enough of a vision, it is difficult to see how a bunch of old Northern Europeans, back in 2001, could have seen that they were betting on a loser horse (Microsoft).

I said they were "unfortunate," not dumb. Fortune is revealed by the passage of time, and is sometimes caused by factors you have no influence over. In this particular instance, a decision which seemed wise at the time took B&O down the wrong path. At the time this CEO was hired, his direct line to Microsoft top management seemed a find.

And the fact that this happened precisely as the iPod and subsequently the iTunes Store was launched, couldn't have had an impact on the decision. Most analysts doubted the wisdom of Apple going into these products. I'm not saying that B&O should have embraced Apple then, but that the decision closed the door even more firmly shut to whatever Apple was doing, because B&O didn't want to offend Microsoft as the collaboration got underway.

Which is why it was an unfortunate decision. Exemplified to a brilliant extent in how the BeoSound 2 was launched without an Apple-OS driver ... a fact which caused B&O to finally realize how many Mac-users are in their customer base, as the complaints came pouring in. B&O had looked at the total number of platforms worldwide, and at the time Macs had a just under 3% share.
But they didn't ask the question: how many of our customers are Mac owners? It turned out to be over 20% - and they were much more likely to want a distinctive MP3-player than were the PC-customers, because they had iTunes in their computers ...

However, to your other point - the B&O board could have realized what you quote: that Microsoft have absolutely no taste. A fact they have proven a zillion times, with horrible GUI design, terrible product design, clunky usage of CPU capacity, and with user-unfriendly demands upon customers.

If B&O had been true to their own brand expression and excellence, they would have sought to achieve a fit between B&O and Apple's offerings at a much earlier stage. It's as if the two brands are made for each other. My BL3s on either side of my computer look absolutely incredible.

And it would have been very simple to put Mac-functionality inside the BeoMaster 5, instead of the horrible junkyard offering that's inside it now.

It's not too late - but it's a reverse Tortoise and Hare race, where it's the tortoise that's been asleep, not the hare. And it's going to be a lot harder to catch up than if they'd gotten going when the writing was clearly on the wall.

I'm not quoting your entire post, but I want to highlight this sentence of yours, because it really goes to the core of the problem:

"The dullard B&O Board evidently forgot that they were supposed to have good taste ..."