I don't want to be too blunt, but the idea of the iPhone app being the primary remote is "not smart." Any company who builds its own ecosystem has to be primarily in control of their interface and when that interface. In order to guarantee an experience and reliably develop features of their hardware portfolio into the future, that interface must be within their control. If we were talking about products with a 12 month shelf life and a 2-3 year use cycle (like Apple products or Sony TVs), we might be able to have a different discussion. But frankly half my B&O equipment is older than the Bondi Blue iMac that marked Steve's return to Apple. How on earth can I trust that a disposable product made today is going to be around to control my television system in 15 years!? 

So while having an app for control is an important part of the experience, it's only just that: a part. 

While I appreciate that individuals will have preferences and experiences that are unique, it would be imprudent for a company to consider apps on 3rd party devices as their exclusive means of control. Then answer, going forward, will be continuing development in both directions. 

On a more specific note, Mawheel, the Beo6 has a very different physical feel than the Beo5, which is marked by a sort of "bendy-spongy" feeling in the screen because of the "touch and go" button design. Then new Beo6 is extremely solid and the screen is slimmer. The touch screen is now like interacting with an iPhone in landscape mode than an old ATM machine. You may find that you like it much more than the Beo5. 

TripEnglish wrote:

 Any company who builds its own ecosystem has to be primarily in control of their interface and when that interface. In order to guarantee an experience and reliably develop features of their hardware portfolio into the future, that interface must be within their control.

🤒 🤒 🤒 🤒 🤒 

This is what Apple has got right with their own business model - they are in control of their own product platform, from top to bottom. Bang & Olufsen can't do this as they aren't a large enough company - they just don't have the resources (or knowledge required) to supply you with every part of the home entertainment 'experience', but the bits they really are very good at (their core competences you might say) are vitally important (and that includes the remote controls).

One of the best bits of my Beosystem 6500 is the BeoLink 1000 I use with it - in fact it outshines almost anything available for equivalent systems today. I doubt you'll be able to say the same of the iPhone or iPod Touch in ~20 years time...

Mawheele;

The 2,5 Gateway product you mention: Can you expand on that for a minute ?

There have been a few discussions on the MLGW since it was announced - for most I think price is an issue since it originally seemed to be mainly for home automation integration but maybe that is changing:

link <= B&O announcement/description/etc

 <= these guys say they built it for B&O, 2 x end user videos on this page

🙁

mawheele wrote:

Hope this might be worth a separate thread. I learnt from the dealer conference thread that a Beo6 is coming which is completely puzzling to me, when B&O have clearly brought in some XCode developers to build C+ apps that run on iOS.

The ideal Beo5 replacement would be a package of hardware/software - like TomTom for iPhone - that combines a bluetooth or wireless Airplay receiver with some software that runs as a universal App for iPhone and iPad (maybe Android as well) and the remote control device. I appreciate they have gone half-way in this direction with the £2.5k Gateway product (that few will buy), but they would sell thousands of kits to exisiting owners with a solution priced at £499-£599 that combined this kind of receiver and software from the App Store.

I had a Beo5 for 2 months and then sold it. It was too clunky to setup and use. I found the Beo4 got me from A-B faster.

Imagine the possibilities if they went in this quicker to develop direction (iOS or Android):
- Live TV schedule updates displayed on screen
- Simple user customisation of features and button placement
- Vastly superior interface and leverage of the Retina (Apple) or OLED (Android) displays
- Ability to link to Movie recommendations or even a B&O community
- Make MOTs more worthwhile by aggregating this data across all its customers - like Genius.
- Improved customer experience with simplified self-service software updates direct from the App store and the ability to customise without the need to connect to a PC or worse spend £50 each time you want to make a change at your dealer.

Instead the Beo6 seems stuck on the faults of the Beo5 and is trying to expand the functionality of the BS/BM5 combination that is dead-end technology. Why?

I want B&O to deliver long lasting and surprising experiences and that means integrating with my digital life. Anyone else for this £500 dream?

Well, without knowing the Beo6 specs yes, i have to agree with you. The point is and has always been, that the B&O engineers simply has to be +55 year old guys not knowing what is happening outside Struer. I think adding HDMI ports just about 2 years ago(I seem to remember) tells the story. At the moment they are struggeling with faulty products and instead of focusing on this, they introduce a 1000£ ipod dock..... Oh yes, and a BS5 encore rumored to be WITHOUT masterlink...so basicly an 3.000£ ipod, just without the touchscreen.

I fail to understand their R&D department, i mean where do they do their research? I do not need a 3D B&O screen or OLED etc. However what i do need, is userfriendly products with WOW factor as B&O used to be. Not "Hey look at my brand new 100% customizable remotecontrol that can be customized by just taking it to your B&O dealer and paying him to hook it up to a computer" Why and how on earth did they come to the conclusion that this was the right way of introcuding it? And what about SW updates? B&O I think by now, we can fairly conclude that the internet is here to stay, so instead of sending a dealer to update every single sold tv 5 times a year, how about adapting online  user update possibillities onwards?

I know there is somekind of Analog/digital overlapping fase where everything has to be reinvented at the same time as it has to be backwards compatible. However, please dont let it be 20 years.

THAT said, I am looking forward to see what the BEO6 is about, but based on my last year of B&O experience, i am almost expecting to be disappointet 🙁

But lets wait and see.

/Ehlerz

elephant wrote:

 

link <= B&O announcement/description/etc

 <= these guys say they built it for B&O, 2 x end user videos on this page

link

linklink <=an indepth presentation by an Ikatu engineer

thanks for the links ,especially the last one , alot of usefull information.

Ehlerz wrote:

Well, without knowing the Beo6 specs yes, i have to agree with you. The point is and has always been, that the B&O engineers simply has to be +55 year old guys not knowing what is happening outside Struer. I think adding HDMI ports just about 2 years ago(I seem to remember) tells the story. At the moment they are struggeling with faulty products and instead of focusing on this, they introduce a 1000£ ipod dock..... Oh yes, and a BS5 encore rumored to be WITHOUT masterlink...so basicly an 3.000£ ipod, just without the touchscreen.

You've jumped to conclusions about the functionality of the BeoSound 5 Encore - wait until it's out, and in use. Remember, the BeoSound 5 didn't actually have any sort of linking capability to start off with...

Ehlerz wrote:

I fail to understand their R&D department, i mean where do they do their research? I do not need a 3D B&O screen or OLED etc. However what i do need, is userfriendly products with WOW factor as B&O used to be.

Unfortunately, for most people, B&O's TVs will fail to 'wow' if they're the only sets on the market without 3D capability. This is a route they'll have to go down - simple market forces, or else they'd go under. I don't need/want 3D any more than you do (I hate it personally - gives me headaches). HD was the same at first - unnecessary in many ways as the picture off a BeoVision 5 was already absolutely fantastic without HD capability.

Ehlerz wrote:

Not "Hey look at my brand new 100% customizable remotecontrol that can be customized by just taking it to your B&O dealer and paying him to hook it up to a computer" Why and how on earth did they come to the conclusion that this was the right way of introcuding it? And what about SW updates? B&O I think by now, we can fairly conclude that the internet is here to stay, so instead of sending a dealer to update every single sold tv 5 times a year, how about adapting online  user update possibillities onwards?

B&O can't keep expecting it's customers to use a remote control which is essentially a 17 year old design (the Beo 4), even if it is a fantastic remote. Such a major transition to completely online software updates is something I would imaging B&O is working on - and from the look of things, not rushing into it (which is a good thing).

Ehlerz wrote:

I know there is somekind of Analog/digital overlapping fase where everything has to be reinvented at the same time as it has to be backwards compatible. However, please dont let it be 20 years.

B&O have always done things slowly - which is usually a good thing (although I agree with you R.E. the inclusion of HDMI sockets on some of their TVs, and I still have certain reservations on that topic which I shall not go into). There's nothing worse than rushing into a technology (especially such a major change as 'online-updateable TVs') and getting it wrong, that will solve fewer issues than it creates unless they get it right straight away...

Alex wrote:

B&O can't keep expecting it's customers to use a remote control which is essentially a 17 year old design (the Beo 4), even if it is a fantastic remote. Such a major transition to completely online software updates is something I would imaging B&O is working on - and from the look of things, not rushing into it (which is a good thing).

 

Yes they can! And they should! For the majority of the time, the Beo4 (and indeed Beolink 1000 !) are fine. The Beo5 is simply not as user friendly for most control issues. However I agree that they need a 2 way touch screen remote for browsing music - the iPhone already does this very well - all it lacks is the ability to alter other parameters,  the system volume and source, necessitating a second remote, an anathema to all right thinking B&O users. However it would seem to go from my present system using two remotes, I will need to purchase a lot more hardware and get no improvement in sound. Not sure this is for me.

Gosh are even B&O remotes now compared to Apple products!! Thats bizarre to me!!