guest:

Lets hope this is a positive for B&O. I have been very disappointed with all the products released in recent years.

The Beosound 6 mp3 player is a very poor product compared to the recent iPods. The Beolab 9 speakers are plain ugly.

Agree 100% plain ugly ! 

well of course all design tastes are different. Would you prefer that B&O produce more of the speakers like the 8000??

Look pretty but.........

Has DAB been rolled out in the US? Again this is a bit of a blanket statement. However, as a child (probably as a result of Hollywood) I thought that America was the most technologically advanced country in the world. However, it would appear that their mobile phone network is on 2.5 or less in general and there is not much 3g and that the infrastructure for the uploading of information over the internet is quite poor. I think I will leave this issue before I get into hot water - this is as far as my technical knowledge goes. However, if the US is as far behind the times with regard to radio perhaps DAB would not be important for the US market either.

 

Barely anybody in the US knows about Dab.  In the US, there is satellite radio and HD radio.  There were two satellite radio services which are merging into one called XM radio.  It is also available on the web.  HD radio is a digital version of regular FM that is being rolled out now around the country.  Many new cars have HD radio as standard whether anyone wants it or not.  I prefer internet radio myself

Cellular phone service is a poor indicator of technological ability.  I am looking forward to Wimax service which will be available in Chicago, Washington, and a few other cities starting in April.  Essentially this is wide area wifi and it is hoped that it will be nationwide.  Several applications include Skype on a handheld phone anywhere and internet radio in a car.  The wimax providers so far are Xohm and Clearwire.

I was amazed by the removal of Mr Torbensen.  The greater worry is that some hedge fund will buy up all the stock and make B&O into a company that none of us would recognize.

Well this was the last thing I expected to read on Beoworld today. Really don't know what else to say right now.

Craig🙂

I agree that this is not good news.  However, I think B&O has changed the top position before on a similar time interval, so maybe the timing was just coincidence.  I wish B&O would go private, so they are not subject to the rises and falls of the stock market.  B&O does need to pay attention to its various constituencies a little more, i.e. the stores and their customers.  I know it's difficult, because this adds many voices to the chorus, but a good manager not only listens to everyone, but can pull out of the chorus the exceptional singers.

I think he had a good vision for the company.

If B&O moves to a being a majority low cost producer, i.e. manufacturing in the Far East, I would lose interest in their products.  I think it is very important that manufacturing remain close to "home".  There is so much more to manufacturing than the bottom line financial costs.  One has to think how important a labor force that actually manufactures is in society.  The production of goods, the actual physical products, is key for the self-determination of a company.   The moment they start to sub-contract it out, I mean the major assembly and component part, then you will slowly see the erosion of the core and integrity of the company.

This is why it is fairly important to have a continuation of the same management as much as possible.  The more change there is usually results in throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.

Contrary to what others might think, I believe some of the smaller audio products have been very positive for B&O, such as the BeoSound 1, 2 and 3, and their telephones.  I am still thinking over the BeoSound 6 and the necessity of having it, though adding the screen was probably a good thing.  I also think that the mobile telephones have exposed B&O to customers which otherwise might not give B&O a second look.  Even though they are made in Korea, which doesn't sit very well with me, I believe B&O worked hand in hand with Samsung on the production parameters, including top quality control.  I believe their joint collaboration agreement is quite specific and precise.  I plan on getting the Serenata in the near future.  I already have the Serene.  The audio quality is superb, which is what counts for a mobile phone.

As far as the radio market, satellite radio is the wave of the future.  As I have stated before on another thread, digital is the way to go for B&O.  It is a certainty that if B&O heads in another direction other than digital, it would be a very serious mistake.  Yes, I admire the BeoGram record players, but let's face it, those are available as pre-owned, many in very good to excellent condition, but that really is a product of a bygone era. To come out with another BeoGram traditional turntable would be liking introducing audio or video equipment with vacuum tubes. I still have mine, and it works perfectly after more than 20 years.  I think I got it when I was 10 years old.

I am sorry to see Mr. Torben B. leave. 

My biggest concern about B&O's future, is that if it loses it's exclusivity and this really has been apparent over the past 10 years. In the mid 90s, I knew very few people who had or even knew what B&O was. Today, it seems many people know the brand and proof of this is just by how many stores there are around selling B&O. Every town and city I go to in the UK has atleast one B&O dealer or more. I can also comment on France and Italy, and here it is the same story. Even at 2000 meters above sea level in the Alps I walked into a B&O dealer (probably the highest dealer in the world!) in St Moritz.

I hope that B&O will not lower any further the price of their products. In doing so, they will automatically turn and slip into a mass producing company like Samsung, Sony, Hitachi etc.

Fingers crossed that the new senior management don't make things any worse and that B&O regains more of its past exclusivity through REAL innovative technology and design.

Sad to hear about this.

Somehow the 80's / Philips pop into my mind.

🙁