moxxey wrote:
Dkatz wrote:
Regardless of where they were made...
Eh? You're contradicting yourself now. In fact, you're going around circles in your own posts.
Dkatz wrote:
At least this way they would have had perhaps a smaller profit margin than with Made in China products, but a much much bigger profit than they had before they went to China...
Yeah, and life would be so easy to solve if you had your way. You should perhaps apply to UNICEF or something as you seem to have the simple answers to solve all life's issues.
Basically your entire argument is that you want everything to be made in Denmark, and that the BS8 would somehow improve if it was, and that you wouldn't mind the price rising (even though everyone thinks it's overpriced as it is) and that B&O would somehow be seen to be the savour of men by refusing to seek better profit margins by using established mass-manufacturing?
But still ignore the fact that most of B&O's kit is made in Eastern Europe (Czech Republic), but you have zero issues about this.
In fact, perhaps B&O could follow your "advice" then lecture Apple and tell them where they are going wrong, too.
I am not contradicting myself. I am saying that the successs of the A8s, and BS8 and Beolit 12 were not that they were made in China or not. It was about the distribution, integration, marketing, all things they could have done with their other products.
It's not easy to solve anything. In fact it's always much easier for companies to go to China. That's the easy way out, they don't even have to worry about the manufacturing process as it's done for them!
I agree that the BS8 is overpriced, but not because it's the BS8, but because it's Made in China. You have a BS3 which was made in Struer or Czech that cost nearly half the price of the BS8! That in itself shows that there was something wrong with B&Os pricing. The fact that they are selling a superior BS1 for only a little bit more that's made in Europe rather than a 900 pound made in China product is already saying something...
I never said that B&O would be seen to be the savour of men. They could have, however used "Made in Europe" or "Made in Struer" or whever in their campaigns to sell even better at the Apple stores. True most people don't look at the labels, but given the choice, many would see the higher price as justified and would even choose the European made equivilent. They would have differentiated themselves from other Dock makers for example in this simple marketing technique.
I don't ignore the fact that many of B&Os products are made in Czech. In fact if you look at most of my previous posts I put Struer/Czech... Because B&O has THEIR OWN factories in both locations. The Czech republic in terms of manufacturing has higher social and direct benifits for each employee than does the US even according to the US Labour Statistics. According to the statistics in 2010 the Czech manufacturing labour wage was $11.50 an hour compared to $1.68 an hour of China that's about 10 times the wage rate. $11.50 an hour is excellent pay for the Czech republic especially considering all the social and direct benifits they get from the company and since then it's probably increased as well. And as mentioned it is their own factory, with their own workers that they trained themselves, that only make B&O products to B&Os standards. They have EU labour laws they must abide by, overtime pay, certain maximum hours they can work, etc...
Apple and B&O are different companies. You might disagree but B&O is a luxury high end a/v manufacturer, Apple is a mass production consumer brand for the masses. No, I don't think that they can lecture Apple, and they don't produce nearly as much as Apple does either... but to me Apple is not a luxury brand, even many poor people in the west can afford an iPod, not many can afford a BS8. B&O hasn't become more affordable, the BS8 is only slightly less expensive than the Century, BS1 before it and is more than the BS3... Therefore B&O is still trying to market itself as a luxury high end a/v brand whilst starting to to something that a mainstream company such as Apple would do. You may think this is right, but I think it is wrong, because what they are becoming is a mass production generic brand like Apple rather than a high end a/v manufacturer...
