You are not alone Linder to be disappointed by the Beo's marketing. Right nothing special in the line. Like many Beofans here, we are waiting for new models. Hoping they will come.

Raeuber wrote:

I hope they will stop also producing BS5/BM5 also and introduce a new audio product, but I doubt.

I can't believe they will survive with only some loudspeakers.

If they do not produce a new audio system soon I fear B&O as a retailer will cease to exist in their current form.

They will be relying as you say on sales of loudspeakers and a few stand alone BeoPlay products.

They will be the Danish version of B&W.

I thought also that maybe B&O will be in the future only a factory of loudspeakers but they have a big experience on TV too. Hoping they will react positively. Shame Bang & Olufsen don't communicate enough and not tell what they have planned to launch this year.

I don't think its so hard:

 

- High end home installations

- Beoplay for the Iphone crowd

- A single digital music system, think a Beosound 5 with Airplay to cover the spotify crowd and ironed out kinks for serious listening

 

Is not too hard, they just need to get their products right. They do not do a good job understanding their products. Digital music player without gapless playing? A customer base using predominantly macs and no apple lossless support? 

 

i do sense they ware waking up. Fo rme, I chose the Playmaker, would have paid more for it with better packaging but it can do what I need a music player to do.

Maybe it's just me, but I was thinking this week how quiet it is in the world of B&O. No new catalogue/magalogue, nothing from Tue in terms of an inspirational message to their customers, little speculation about new BeoPlay products and so on.

As for the future? Who knows. Hard to speculate. Some old-school B&O customers that I'm aware of appear to have completely drifted away from the brand. Indeed, I was introduced to the brand about 11 years ago by a couple of B&O-owning friends and they've not bought anything B&O since around 2005. Another couple I know, who regularly attend the local B&O launch parties, stopped going over a year ago. The last item they bought was the BeoSound 3, which promptly broke (top plate) after 4 months. That damaged their opinion of the brand.

Loudspeakers are perhaps the way forward, but then you really need to be able to connect these to a TV as B&O are producing fewer and fewer audio systems (to connect the speakers) and, let's be fair here, no-one is going to spend £799 on their LG TV and then go out and buy a pair of £6000 BL9s, are they? If B&O aren't producing new audio systems, TVs aren't selling, who will buy the speakers?

I wrote this in another thread, but I think it is also apt here:

The big problem I see is not the loss of the Beosound 4, but the fact that B&O is becoming less and less a complete audio/visual solution for everyone.

B&O seem to be going through a period of being lost in what they do. They're bringing out products that suit different needs, but not looking at the complete picture like they used to...

I don't see a problem. It is what is to be expected while they shed all the legacy stuff (including ML).

I'm glad they're killing off those old products. It would be nice if they simultanously updated/revised the Encore, killed off the BM5, and came out with more, modern TVs than the BV11.  They should also update the BL5s with a more capable DAC, and perhaps introduce a DAC to the BL9s.

With that said, I'm not really a fan of the BeoPlay products. I think they're mostly catering to the iPhone crowd, and I don't find that original, nor interesting. And the Form2 headphones? Why would people walk around with huge advertisements on their ears? Seriously, that's not in the spirit of Scandinavian design, is it?

 

 

Jonathan , Completely agree with your nice sentence : B&O seem to be going through a period of being lost in what they do. They're bringing out products that suit different needs, but not looking at the complete picture like they used to.

Who knows what future is in store for B&O. I sadly have gone away from the brand for the time being.

I don't want to bring Apple in to this, but a nice little metaphor.

Apple really started gaining popularity once it convinced the larger purchasing public that it moved to intel, their once competitor.

Once people could compare specs apples for apples well at least on paper they were more comfortable plus now they could add something familiar , windows, even if traditional apple customers saw this as sacrilege, but it gave the necessary launch pad for customers to get familiar.

Perhaps it's time for B&O to embrace what they may not have been wanting to do with their competition , but get rid of DIN adapters for good and allow their compelling speakers to be mated with more and more other audio solutions natively.

It's time B&O.

Electrified wrote:

With that said, I'm not really a fan of the BeoPlay products. I think they're mostly catering to the iPhone crowd

I think they are trying to cater for a younger audience, an audience that never (!) go in to a B&O store.

I walk past our local B&O store on the way to football, twice a week. I'm often wandering with other footballers - guys who are between say, 25 and 40. Occasionally they mention something that's in the B&O store window. None - I repeat none - of these people, over the years, has been in to the store. None of them would consider going in to the store. Frankly, they don't have the cash and view the brand with the likes of Jaguar cars or Rolex watches. Something that's way beyond their means.

We seem to forget most people under 35 are cash-strapped these days. Everything in life has gone up in value: food, rent, gas bills, you name it. The last thing they have is thousands of pounds to spend on BL3s or a BV11.

The reason B&O brought in the BeoPlay products was to try and get these users in to the brand and perhaps the stores. Without these young people getting introduced to the brand, there will be no future.

We forget on here that most of us are very blinkered about how we see B&O. That's why were subscribed to a B&O forum, with respect. We view B&O with a passion and can't see the wood for the trees. Problem is, we're not a large enough userbase to guarantee B&O's long term future.