Chris Townsend wrote:

If the video side of things finished, there would be very little of B&O to interest me in the future that others cannot supply.

Totally agree

I think bno handled the transition from analogue to digital very poorly and it's come back to bite them. Their arrogance over the years hasn't helped them either.

personally I think with the tragic death of David Lewis , much of the soull of the company has gone too.

Doesnt help that most of the new designs are truly awful either....

Flappo wrote:

I think bno handled the transition from analogue to digital very poorly and it's come back to bite them. Their arrogance over the years hasn't helped them either.

One really odd thing I found today was that they are still promoting products that are unavailable: 

It seems to me that the lack of public strategy reflects the current focus on the BeoPlay line. That line doesn't need a strategy per se, just a steady diet of great fun products. The A3 may have been something of a flop, but flops are more easily absorbed in a sub-brand like Play. By and large the feedback on the stuff has been great. 

If we think back to the years and years of MasterLink I'm not sure that Bang & Olufsen ever clearly communicated a "strategy" in the sense that people seem to be hungering for here. ML implied capabilities, but the brand was always driven by the amazing individual products and not the ML backbone (though it was crucial to growing sales, versus originating them). 

So there's already NetLink products in the field. More are coming. More features are coming online shortly. Just as ML before it, NetLink will live and die by the amazing products that feature it, not the inherent concept itself. I think that we'll see some pretty amazing stuff coming out this year, but I always think that. 😁

TripEnglish wrote:

................. just a steady diet of great fun products. The A3 may have been something of a flop, but flops are more easily absorbed in a sub-brand like Play

If these products are designed and developed by a third party then this is probably OK, if they are taking up significant Struer resources (in the broadest sense of the word) I would question whether it is the best use of those limited resources at this time.

I do agree that it is unrealistic to expect a complete NetLink system to be unveiled in one splurge however releasing details of the capabilities of NetLink, present and future, together with a vision of a NetLinked house's capabilities would certainly do no harm in reassuring the faithful.

The report from Handelsbanken to their clients regarding B and O makes for interesting reading and perhaps goes someway to explaining the dramatic fall in the share price 

here is a link

MichaelMiles wrote:

The report from Handelsbanken to their clients regarding B and O makes for interesting reading and perhaps goes someway to explaining the dramatic fall in the share price 

Although that covers pretty much everything we already know, it does emphasise that B&O would be wise getting out the TV business and concentrating on it's audio core (which is something I don't want to happen, personally).

BTW can anyone find me a black-framed BV10-32? :)

TripEnglish wrote:

It seems to me that the lack of public strategy reflects the current focus on the BeoPlay line. That line doesn't need a strategy per se, just a steady diet of great fun products. The A3 may have been something of a flop, but flops are more easily absorbed in a sub-brand like Play. By and large the feedback on the stuff has been great.

If we think back to the years and years of MasterLink I'm not sure that Bang & Olufsen ever clearly communicated a "strategy" in the sense that people seem to be hungering for here. ML implied capabilities, but the brand was always driven by the amazing individual products and not the ML backbone (though it was crucial to growing sales, versus originating them).

So there's already NetLink products in the field. More are coming. More features are coming online shortly. Just as ML before it, NetLink will live and die by the amazing products that feature it, not the inherent concept itself. I think that we'll see some pretty amazing stuff coming out this year, but I always think that.

Puncher wrote:

If these products are designed and developed by a third party then this is probably OK, if they are taking up significant Struer resources (in the broadest sense of the word) I would question whether it is the best use of those limited resources at this time.