"In response to Trip's excellent post, I think B&O should adopt the new strategy of actually giving away it's products for free – although this could be problematic in the long term. I will be the first to sign up – A couple of pairs of Beolab 5s and a BV9 will do for starters and... oh yes one of those new Beosound 5 thingies. Cheers"

Absolutely.  Make up for the loss in volume!! 

As always, Trip, you got it right!

Why can't anybody EVER accept that the dozens-to-hundreds of people complaining about B&O lagging behind in technology are all ABSOLUTELY wrong?!  

I don't think the CEO should change a single thing myself!  Ever!  Not one!

Technology?  Screw technology!   

The bevision7 32" with non hdmi.........come on!....anampersand open your eyes.

To make any electronics today that will survive without change for a decade without constant updates will be wishful thinking. So I am stressing Modularity again all the way from loudspeakers to the sources and to the tvs. Something to consider also is that if panel technology is moving so fast, why don't consider making specialist video processors and add-on light sensors that B&O is so good at? I mean the real competence in B&O tvs is their video processing technology, no tvs out there has the level of calibration that makes the picture be so natural looking. Even videophiles are at awe at the natural picture quality of B&O tvs but only to be let down by their old panels. It will totally make sense if B&O also sell them as add-ons or branch off into making specialist video technologies just like what it did for Icepower. 

PS. Has anyone also realize that B&O is especially good at making automatic calibration stuff or is it just me? Apparently the sound calibration system in Beolab 5 was so avant-grade that it had the now departed high end lifestyle brand, Tag Mclaren, borrow the technology in their av processors and not to mention that the Beolab 5s revolutionized the whole av industry in a way that they inspired them to add automatic sound calibration as standard?  

Jeez come to think of it B&O must have some real geniuses in their engineering department. So what's wrong with you B&O? Your design department may not be even be up to up to par to the technical department in terms of excellence. I don't see any brands begging to have you design for them. To put it in short. Your designs aren't as hot as what it used to be because there are way better designers out there but there aren't the same engineers out there.  

So lets transform this hierarchy of importance. Design>Cost>Convenience>Build quality>Technical Excellence>Function to this

Build quality>Convenience>Technical Excellence>Function>Design>Cost. The true hierarchy of a luxury electronics brand.  

I don't think we have much to worry about. A clear direction is always a good one, then again if they stuff up they can always blame the "Current Economic Climate" (hands up all those bored silly by that tired old phrase being an excuse to do anything stupid these days).

I think a lot has happened, they were a bit slow off the mark on DVB for both satelite and ariel users. Other than that Nothing too much to worry about. After all everyone's favorite Steve Jobs has said they're not putting blue ray in apple yet as licensing is a nightmare and they're still looking at where the market is going, and that was only yesterdays comment.

So hey putting blueray in BV7 as an option well that's certainly an sensible option.

Let's just hope they start bringing out products that a) people want and b) actually make sense.

koning:

The bevision7 32" with non hdmi.........come on!....anampersand open your eyes.

I do think ampersand may have had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he typed this!

Thanks, Puncher.  I was hoping to carry the same spirit of sarcasm as others... Apparently the apologists have run rampant so long that we're becoming unable to distinguish hard-headed "loyalty" from sarcasm.  Oy! 

Well yeah, I kinda like Trip's take on it to be honest, nothing wrong with sitting in a field in the middle of nowhere and getting something that you think is going to work generally it does. OK there's the odd exception like the rectangular mp3 player that they just shouldn't have bothered with but hey, at least we hope they can learn from their mistakes.

I was pondering the other day, their phones are great - looking fwd to the new one and hey lets have another nice mobile but at a decent price I mean after all a normal B&O mobile pitched at about $1200 NZD people would buy it, the current line at well over $2000 NZD is just a bit too stupid. Loudspeakers are doing well too I think.

Any strategy will have to be a careful migration of technology and plug-ins as after all their stuff is/does last a long time so that's key to migrating existing users hand in hand with a fine balance to get enough non-throw away features in products to get new customers into the mind set. I guess how far do you want that music/video/IP mix happening, for safety sake it'd make more sense to make items that offer them individually which can then me connected to give an overall solution.