Yes, it's too complicated to "easily" download music and alblum covers (ala BeoMedia).

Look, the demographic that "buys' B&O, for the large part, hasn't come to grips with "ripping" their music, storing and accessing it. Combine this with B&O's minimalist instructions and after sales support, and no wonder people were disechanted with BeoMedia. Hey, all my friends think I'm *very* computer literate. Yet, I'm working on my on Beomdeia for over a year and have yet to fully understand how to use it, I don't blame the software, I blame the "instructions and support" available with and after the product.  I really would like to take classes on it, but even my dealer says "I really don't understand/use Beomedia"

Sheesh!

Barry

avus17 wrote:

What could be a reason?

Having owned a Beosound 5 (and now regretting the decision) for the last couple of months, I'd say the two key problems are:

1) You can't easily choose an album or particular track, from your armchair, using the Beo4. You have to get up, go to the Beosound 5, choose the album manually etc. Absolutely criminal decision from B&O. You can find and select photos from your Beo4, but not your audio tracks! Yes, I know this facility is coming, but where are we all beta-testers for B&O products these days?

2) It doesn't really do anything apart from storing and playing digital music. It should have been an all-in-one complete media solution and B&O should have bought one of the many opensource media servers on the market and simply used this to control your content, via your TV.

Although I guess many of B&Os customers do not want much functionality, Sonos have proved they can make a successful business from their solution and that doesn't come cheap.

One word i think should become a B&O mantra.

Simplicity

Beautiful design, and ease of use.  It's what makes me buy things. Apple products may be plastic on the whole, but they look cool and work better than anything i have ever experienced in my life.  I used to get so annoyed with people banging on about Apple as i was a dyed-in-the-wool PC/Windows user. However, you just can't ignore what they do.

B&O?....  I'm going to generalise here, which is the best you can do when trying to reach a large audience..

People with money to buy B&O are busy. People with money to buy B&O don't have time to read instruction manuals six times over and telephone their dealer on a daily basis for help.

People with money to buy B&O want to be able to plug a product in and learn how to use it - quickly.  They appreciate the beautiful design for sure, as well as the beautiful materials and feel of the product.  And finally, 'no' is not an acceptable answer when they ask if the unit can do something basic.  A lot of clever people work at B&O, but how they can miss so many monumental things is beyond me.

If they didn't have the software to do it properly, they should have hastily ditched the developers and made it a glorified BeoSound 3200 / BeoSound4 hybrid just to get it on the market (it was in development for years!).  An optional upgrade path could then have been developed to incorporate the system we see today, but a finished version as opposed to the half-attempt we are experiencing.

Looking on the positive side, one day B&O may actually use us a sounding board for new concepts.  We can live in hope.

Lee

🙂

9 LEE wrote:

If they didn't have the software to do it properly, they should have hastily ditched the developers and made it a glorified BeoSound 3200 / BeoSound4 hybrid just to get it on the market (it was in development for years!).  An optional upgrade path could then have been developed to incorporate the system we see today, but a finished version as opposed to the half-attempt we are experiencing. 

totally agree - a beosound 3200/beosound 4 hybrid would be perfect and low cost to develop.  what i'm dumbfounded with is that the beosound 4 can do multisource but doesn't have a hard-drive (the SD card can only hold so much) and the beosound 3200 can't do multisource!  what a simple way it would have been to stimulate new sales!

I think the amazing thing about the BS5/BM5 combo is that most folk spotted the flaws in the basic concept immendiately it was announced.

Surely they didn't escape the brains in "idealand" or whatever its called.

(battens down hatches to withstand the BS5 supporters brigade)😂

Fully agree with the arguments here: It lacks core multi media functionality and what it does, it does it to complicated. Even if we have stressed the Apple example so often, but it is the benchmark these days: take a AppleTV and an iPod Touch for a 10th of the cost and tell me which one works better...

From my experience working in the IT industry for the last 15 years, one main reason for these types of products could be the isolated location of Struer in any regard. The opposite is the silicon valley where I have spent some time. The ideas and products most of the small and new companies are so crazy and feature rich and hard to deal with that only real nerds can work with these gadgets. For the guys in the valley fine, for the rest of the world who are not part of the valley not usable....

So just a guess, maybe they should move form "end of the world" Struer to a more connected place to see what is going on in the real world.

Karsten

I took a look at the info on the B&O website but still couldn't really work out what the BS% does. Still not sure I understand what it's for. Maybe that accounts for the slow sales.

Well...

I too have been watching the whole BM5/BS5 platform roll out.

I have stayed away from threads since the launch to frankly see if it panned out. I had no intent of ever buying one as I am a staunch fanatic of Apple/Itunes/Airport Express/Touch. I know a lot of people here invested a great deal of money, time, and effort in the new platform and except for a handful of them, there seems to be more problems than satisfaction.

All of us here want to see B&o thrive and I do not intend to come off as: "I told you so..." rather, I think that the BS5 could still be a great thing! So, and to my point...

I look back at say a BM4400: all features were right in front of you, clearly labeled. It was a giant mechanical monster that frankly is still relevant today! Then on to the BM2400: much simpler interface, but also well put together... and still does today exactly what it was supposed to do 25 years ago!

FFWD to the BS5: B&o attempted to create a competitive platform for current home audio desires. Their design and styling department seemingly fit the bill. Most people seem to like the looks and feel of the platform. It has a tactile quality that Apple, etc... lack. There is a sense of quality and solidity and ease of use that B&o is so good at rolling out. So, what happened?

I suppose that Moore's Law came into play a bit here, and that B&o (for lots of reasons) are a bit behind the curve when it comes to software. Of course, being software-challenged is certainly something that is fixable -and would go a long way to solving issues with other products.

I am curious: Does B&o do all their own programming from conception to patching? Is it outsourced? I know that resources are limited, but they need to put their coin into their software development. Get things right there before developing any new products! If they can "commonize" their software and get it clicking, the rest comes easy for them!

I think the best solution would still be BS9000 + Beoport. If the BS9000 could read MP3 files also there would be no need for BeoPort. Only when people are up to N.Radio.