Has Bang & Olufsen lost it's product MOJO?

27 replies

I do not think B&O have lost their mojo at all. I think the pure external design of any of their products is easily recognisable as B&O (bar the link equipment) from the 70's through to the current day.

However, there are some instances whereby the ability to design something unique is rather challenging - flat TV's being one and MP3 players being another.

If you look in terms of functionality and control, then there are products which stand-out more than others. All the ATL loudspeakers come to mind here - which is truly revolutionary. The BV7 in terms of its functionality is way better than the Avant (which the CRT had 40 years of development to rely on). Even the Serenata (which I absolutely love for what it is and does rather and what it does not do or pretend to be) has mojo. Then there is the BC2 which is fresh technology and not simply a reshaping of the BC9000 series products. In-fact, looking back from the late seventies to date, there are only one or two products throughout that a time that were revolutionary (i.e. at no greater frequency than today's revolutionary products). Many of the Beomasters, Beocords, Beocentres were reboxed over time with slightly different interfaces and with small incremental improvements or simplifications. The BC9000 for instance, is fundamentally the same control interface (and similar internals) from 1987 to 2000 over 5 products.

I guess ultimately, and as read this continually on this forum, people want B&O to be like this product or like that one or have a feature that is the same as Apple's etc... which no doubt leads to disappointment when B&O don't copy, don't follow the mainstream or do something in their own way and gives the perception of a loss of direction.

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>>I wouldn't want to perform an interpretive dance every time I wanted to change channels! <<

 You would need 3 motions if there is s screen involved .... replicate what they do with the Beocom Wheel .......that would be far from beeing an interpretive dance ...... .... ahhh I managed not to mention the Fruit Company that release new products tomorrow ..... 

 

 

 

I would also like to add to this thread some of my own opinions regarding B&O and Mojo. Although many have said Apple is the best thing since sliced bread, I'm having real difficulty getting into it.

I consider myself relatively young (young to what you may ask?), and have been buying B&O for 15 years now. I don't want to get involved in pay-per-listen, pay-per-view, and subscription anything (but I might think differently if I could get decent download speeds at home - another one of those run-before-we-can-walk technologies).

I've seen the Apple TV and its integrated "systems" (I've had the misfortune of using one at a Manchester hotel for a week). The picture was lousy, downloads make the disk-start on the BC2 seem like "Quick-Fire McGraw" and it just feels so cheap and plastic-y.  Moving icons feels real "thin" and just could not get in to it!

I despair at Windows Vista and all the garbage that comes with it, much preferring to have a totally trimmed-down XP with no bells and whistles and just enough functionality (and speed) to DO MY JOB! When I get home, I don't want to spend the next 8 awakening hours on the PC again playing with entertainment selections and choices.

I think David Lewis hit a very important point home in the interview with Adam Smith; somehow, we lose a great deal of interaction with our media...the love and care that goes into an LP, keeping it in pristine condition, reviewing the cover art and storing it.

We can argue that B&O has lost it's mojo but I think it is a case that the media industry has lost its mojo. Fully downloadable, fully connected soul-less compressed media. The only way to keep us interested is going to be countless new devices and formats every 30 seconds giving us something we want but really don't want.

Oh and when Apple et al rule the world and want more money or to continue the epic share-price trend, there will be the invasive adverts every 2 minutes for us to cough-up and pay for.

Call me an old f**t but to me B&O mainly make the things I want and make them work in the way I want to.  I hope they can find a way to continue to do that. I hope there are more old f**ts like me buying for the experience and simplicity and less really young whipper-snappers buying cheap and cheerful gadgets to keep them amused for the next five minutes as they are too old for Lego.

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Call me an old f**t but to me B&O mainly make the things I want and make them work in the way I want to.  I hope they can find a way to continue to do that. I hope there are more old f**ts like me buying for the experience and simplicity and less really young whipper-snappers buying cheap and cheerful gadgets to keep them amused for the next five minutes as they are too old for Lego.

10%

  I believe you have hit the nail square on the head there young fella...

 B&O's "thing" was always quality linked with ease of use, the whole "man being the master of technology" thing that used to be their strap line back in the day. The trouble, as far as I see it, is they tried to change their product range to attract a younger customer base. Fine, but it seemed to be a total change over. In just a very short period going into a dealer changed from  an exciting, allways worthwhile trip, to a gadget obssesed, iPod MP3 mobile phone nightmare!  Most of these "develpoments" seemed to be based on, if not made by, outside companies.

    As an old school B&O punter I am not interested in hooking an iPod to a pair of speakers or watching my mobile phone "erect" itself ... I think from what I read in the press B&O are a bit lost. They dont seem to have thei troubles to seek and I would like to see them return to their core values, if there is still time...

apple were the first company to produce a voice activated affordable desktop computer with the quadra 840av , i had one and it worked really quite well - for very basic stuff

i don't see the point of it in an audio/visual product as no doubt if you're listening to either a spoken word recording or god help us rap , the thing would probably self destruct at all the conflicting commands

While I am a fan of the iphone... and nothing else.. other than the laptops..  I think apple may too find themselves looking for thier mojo as thier ideas will run dry and become dare I say boring and repetitive and in the same position as B&O.

 

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