People have been complaining about the rebadging since the 80's so saying as if its a new occurrence is not true. Personally I think they've been running the company as they always have, its just these days there's a lot more competition and with the internet, a lot information is shared spreading any slight problem to the whole world. 

Quality wise I don't think there's been much of a change.....its hard to tell how a product will last until its out there being used by the public. That is the greatest test. A lot of the 80's beovox range started suffering from foam rot 20 years ago.....so then should we say that B&O was manufacturing inferior products even from then? Even with all the issues, 20 years down the line the products are still beautiful then most manufacturers. I always found that B&O products can be over engineered and therefore for sensitive to how they are used. There has always been flops along the way......and there will be in the future. 

MS Office is by far the best choice -no matter if on Windows or Mac OS. They are all just computers... no matter which brand or software. But for me e.g. a glossy display is a no go for working. And yes, that's an endless discussion coming up frequently.

I agree with you that moving production to China was not a good move and selling it on QVC seems like a further cuffin nail.

I think the idea behind B&O play was to attract younger people or maybe people with less money, too, to get an entry into the B&O world. If they are convinced with the quality and reliability of the cheaper PLAY products, they should at some time make the move to upgrade to the real B&O without play. But that didn't seem to work so well if you have for example a look at the A6 review from engadget.com. Ok, I don't think that engadget authors have much knowledge about anything when I read through their "reviews" but there seems to be a big croud of readers that believe everything from the site and I can't remembering reading something positive about a Bang & Olufsen product on their site ever!

Let's see if and how B&O will adress all of these problems... as a CEO I would cure it fast!

I'm pretty sure B&O will continue to do what they have done over the past few decades - survive.

Manbearpig wrote:

I'm pretty sure B&O will continue to do what they have done over the past few decades - survive.

I hope so and many other B&O fans will do the same.

Maybe I should leave my company and move to Denmark to help surviving. :-)

Stock price is going up. So let's see...

Andrew wrote:

Here's an idea - maybe the B&O logo should be removed from the PLAY range and they come up with something else to make it clear that it is a cheaper alternative? It has worked before take Rolex, Panasonic and Toyota?

Maybe they can call the brand Peter & Svend with a slight alteration to the logo by removing the bottom portion of the "B" and replace the "o" with "s"! 

B&O Dealer in Gulildford has just closed after 20 years theywere the 4th most succesful franchise in the past but i wonder if they will reopen when the new shopping development opens. 

NO WAY GUYS, the B&O logo is iconic and is VITAL to the play brand. IT'S NOT TO BE SEEN as a cheap version of a BANG & OLUFSEN. NO WAY, it has to be FANTASTIC in order for the customer to then consider staying loyal to the company rather than moving on because of poor experience with the product. THIS is the range that should excel in every way - sound, design, build and most importantly - customer service. 

As an example, I ordered an Apple TV for a friend for Christmas at Midnight last Thursday evening from Apple.com. It was delivered to my house 9.5 hours later all beautifully gift wrapped. How about that for service!   In contrast it took B&O THREE days to reply to a simple Email request and then another THREE DAYS to reply to my message. To me, it gave a feeling that they were not bothered about a sale. For a premium priced brand, there's a lot of work to be done that Tue must sort out!

MGBGTV8 wrote:

B&O Dealer in Gulildford has just closed after 20 years theywere the 4th most succesful franchise in the past but i wonder if they will reopen when the new shopping development opens. 

That is very sad news, the guys in Guildford were always really nice and gave great advise.

NO WAY GUYS, the B&O logo is iconic and is VITAL to the play brand. IT'S NOT TO BE SEEN as a cheap version of a BANG & OLUFSEN. NO WAY, it has to be FANTASTIC in order for the customer to then consider staying loyal to the company rather than moving on because of poor experience with the product. THIS is the range that should excel in every way - sound, design, build and most importantly - customer service. 

As an example, I ordered an Apple TV for a friend for Christmas at Midnight last Thursday evening from Apple.com. It was delivered to my house 9.5 hours later all beautifully gift wrapped. How about that for service!   In contrast it took B&O THREE days to reply to a simple Email request and then another THREE DAYS to reply to my message. To me, it gave a feeling that they were not bothered about a sale. For a premium priced brand, there's a lot of work to be done that Tue must sort out!