ok

1. spend as much time designing the rear ( ports / connections ) as they do the front

 2. stop trying to compete with the big boys by bringing out tacky rebranded samsung stuff

3. return to their core values - making the very best and here's a new one 'most advanced' a/v equipment you can buy

if bno made really cutting edge gear - like they did in their late 70's early 80's heyday i'd have no problem forking out loads of dough for their equipment , i just can't justify spending huge amounts of money on a/v gear that's 5 years past its sell by date

 4. either lower their prices or increase their value for money by cutting off the dead wood , forgetting about reinventing the wheel by writing their own software and just making sure that all their equipment is as easy to connect as possible to other manufacturers things as well as pcs and macs

pcs and macs seem to have standardised recently - usb-2 , firewire , dvi etc , maybe bno need to follow suit ? the world won't follow them , they have to follow the world ! 

people nowadays are much more clued up and with the internet you can really brush up on what people think about a companies products thereby giving one an informed purchasing decision , here and av forums are good starters !

I was also thinking about a thread like this with a "Lets move on theme" but I think your approach is better.  Instead of all the criticism, people are asked to present solutions.  I have a few ideas.

1. Get out of digital media like Beomedia 1 and others.  Instead include a connector to enable connections to iTunes and Windows media.  It was reported a few days ago that the market for iPod and iTunes enabled devices is over $1 billion USD.  B&O could do that without much investment and probably do it better.

2. Put more ICEpower amplifiers in existing loudspeakers and planned speakers.  Put Dacs in some of the speakers besides Beolab 5 or at least produce an optional add on Dac.  ICEpower is one of B&O's strengths.

3. Improve the Beo5 concept and let the user have access to the configuration software.  Maybe have a remote that has WIFI capability and add WIFI control to new products.

4.  Link products should be ethernet or network enabled.  This would reduce the amount of cabling in the home and offer many other possibilities for controlling B&O devices.  Cat 6 cable should be the standard.

5.  Don't even try to compete with the makers of portable players like iPod, Zune, and others.

I have listed a few of the technical things I think they should do but whatever they do, Bang & Olufsen should make one of the best and most distinctive A/V systems in the world.  The wow factor, style and ease of use is still there.  It just needs a little work.

Not make silly mistakes like make TVs without colour control adjustment - had this debate with DAB and I was proved wrong. However, BeoCentre one, that was pure silliness.

Thus just because you are B&O don't think you can get away with doing something quirky - if it does not serve a purpose or enhance the user experience stylisticly, do not do it.

Firstly I think there needs to be realignment of sorts in the pricing arena. Of course to do so would compromise existing customers so offer say a free speaker with a BV4 or BV7 for example and more importantly allow the BS3 to offer the possibilities of third party panel use, that way one can have 'the ultimate BV4' or connect it to a Pioneer or panasonic and it should work seamlessly. Encourage a little more integration with other brands. Properly supported DVD recorder/BR  controls in order to use third party products correctly. Reduce the price of 17 year old designs like bl8000 and bs9000 which are a it old hat now and hardly promote the image of B&O as a brand for today.

The dealer training should move away from 'selling a high end luxury product' to knowing about the audio business in general and being informative as to how some equipment (ie BS3) can be connected to third party applications and which ones to use, being aware and having a good knowledge of technology in order that 1080-, 24fps hdmi111 are known to them and why B&O use it- or dont as the case may be- in other words take away the 'veil' that is B&O today and have dealers that can do software or firmware upgrades in the store without making  a meal of it- or allow some paid for access site where the purchaser can do it themselves. Dont force all the dealers to carry all the expensive lines that B&O do- they will be out of business and dont open any more stores in countries where B&O is more than well reresented- you need happy dealers to make this a success.

Reduce the price of the BV8-  and include DVB this should sell for no more than £2000 and bring back an entry level system that uses apple support, sd car reader, that looks good with a price that is approriate for the market, sub £2000 comes to mind. Any new upmarket system should have seamless support with itunes or similar.

Identify the very best factories in the Far East and use those to produce a range of products in order to 1, get access to new technology quicker 2,get to market quicker, 2 reduce R&D and tooling costs( but maybe not reduce retail price) and use this revenue for more design input, emloying bright young designers and technology to develop other products which will include multimedia devices such as proposed BC5 but ones that do not require a PC.

Move away from Samsung as a partner and move toward a greater association with Panasonic and develop a blue ray player.

Future products should have  a degree of futureproofing to mitigate the high initial costs- for example when selling a BV7 a REAL commitment to offer blue ray in it at a sensible price to existing customers and move toward a system of software and firmware updates available for download that enable a customer to bring a product that was purchased a few years ago, to the same spec as one purchased today- this is already in the pipeline for some brands. Not charge the earth for a chip change as present and expect cusomers to part with £6000 for BS3 when it wont even support the latest MA audio codecs- it could have been engineered to startwith to do that- it may even be possible but as usual no dealer knows!

Operate a mailshot system direct from B&O to keep customers informed directly of updates to third party support, and to products owned not just a mailshot from a dealer with pretty pictures attempting to sell more product.

Improve sales material, be more informative about the product, rather than a mass of pictures taken in some warehouse development, write the manuals properly and for after sales operate a system that means customers dont wait weeks or months with little explanation as to why.

Digital distribution of HD video and uncompressed surround sound with wireless option. HD video and audio disc drive - sounds like Blueray but should also accomodate audio formats using surround sound and up to 24bit 192KHz (I believe digital input on BL5's will need to be upgraded to accomodate higher resolution digital signals). Hard drive storage. Silent operation. Brilliantly simple and intuitive top level operation. Breathtaking styling that will still be contempory 20 years later. Self configuring (recognises attached devices and then interactively configures system as required). Two way LCD remote control.

And now for something I'm not sure of (it could be great but it could be a dog if it can't be made to work reliably) - voice control of your album collection on your hard drive. Imagine being able to speak the title of an album and it immediately starts playing - it would certainly make that coverflow stuff look long-winded.

- Stop with the car-audio

- Stop with the poor rebaged and pimped Samsung mp3 players

- Stop rebranding Philips hdd's

- Stop with the very very poor low-budget tv's (with the price of a high-end tv) without the modern connections, glasspanal and a rubbish picture.

- Make a good Bluray player/recorder (thats exclusive !) 

- Send mr. Lewis on vacation and get a new talented guy with his head full of new ideas

- They should use more high-end and better components (especially in the audio component sector)

- They must search for a good and fair price/prestation balance

Personally, I think B&O should move away from the whole computer integration thing, and just offer the ability to connect to different software packages. A built in iTunes/WMP/WinAmp interface in say, the BeoSound 4 or BeoCentre 2 (with those great big displays) would be fantastic.

The problem is, there are too many large companies like Apple doing the whole multimedia/music/movies/photos thing, and they're doing it very, very well.

B&O should stick to what they're good at, producing top quality AV and hifi kit (especially the hifi front, their most recent 'serious' speakers have been absolutely brilliant).

Plus, moving into the whole 'cheaper' kit thing is just not what B&O do. While the BeoVision 8 is fantastic, I personally see it as more of an absolutely storming brand-X TV, and not so much the kind of thing B&O have always done - it just doesn't have the class of say, the BeoCenter 6.