Is this true... is it officially discontinued?

I hope so......

IMHO its part of the probelm B&O find themselves in right now.......

I know many people love it, but for me like BS2/BS6, Serene and Serenata took B&O down a path they should never have trodden....

hi, its a shame, i really love the serene... all i wished was that they didnt have the word samsung written on it!

I particularly loved how it integrates into a pstn phone network and its simplicity... ive been thinking of getting a blackberry/iphone for quite some time now, but since i cant find a use for my serene, i have been holding back for months now!

As a self confessed Apple Geek, I resisted the iPhone for 9 months, then bought a 2G version.....I haven't regretted it for a second, it integrates beautifully into my like, I can control my itunes library which plays through my BC2 and BL8000s beautifully....

Waiting for the next version in June (or whenever they get round to releasing it) before upgrading to 3G....and earset 3!!!

When will B&O UK wake up and sell that by itself.....

Hi,

It´s really a shame. Serene is nice, sounds good and the only phone I know integrates into a private pstn phone network.

/Edde

I own both, just recently dropped the Serenata in favor of a company Blackberry Storm. My wife keep the Serene. You will remember me, just as Serenata will be deemed as an accident for B&O, Serene will become an icon in design and it will retain lots of its resale value.

gk31ax:

As a self confessed Apple Geek, I resisted the iPhone for 9 months, then bought a 2G version.....I haven't regretted it for a second, it integrates beautifully into my like, I can control my itunes library which plays through my BC2 and BL8000s beautifully....

Waiting for the next version in June (or whenever they get round to releasing it) before upgrading to 3G....and earset 3!!!

When will B&O UK wake up and sell that by itself.....

Not sure if you were referring to the Earset 3 being sold by itself, but this has been the case for some time.  It works perfectly with Iphone, Blackberry, Various Nokia and XDA that I have tested

timhanna:

hi, its a shame, i really love the serene... all i wished was that they didnt have the word samsung written on it!

I particularly loved how it integrates into a pstn phone network and its simplicity... ive been thinking of getting a blackberry/iphone for quite some time now, but since i cant find a use for my serene, i have been holding back for months now!

I am in complete agreement. I too like the Serene, I bought one recently second hand for a pretty good price, well, pretty good considering the original retail. It was enough to tempt me - just. However, if the phone did not have Samsung written on it you can be sure I probably would have paid more for it when it was first released, quite possibly the recommended retail price. I have no problem paying a premium price for a product, to me Bang and Olufsen has always represent good value for money and I have believed in the products I have bought, but recently, I do find myself agreeing with you that they have taken a path that I simply cannot understand at all. They have all the know how and expertise themselves to design and build the best product on the market, whatever that product is. Why they colloborate with Samsung is simpyl beyond me. The biggest joke of all (in my opinion) was the BeoSound 6. There is nothing 'Bang and Olufsen' about it at all, not from a design perspective, not from a build quality perspective and not from a sound quality perspective. What a complete waste of resources both financially and time factorised, that could have gone into developing much more interesting products. The BeoSound 5 I like and the new telephones coming out this year I know almost instinctively that I will like too, because on the landline side of things, B&O have never made a bad phone yet. They did suprise me by bringing out the Samsung based products I must admit. Totally out of character and something I still don't understand. What was in it for them? Samsung cannot offer B&O any advancement in design or technologoy ... can they? Surely it can only have been about cheaper manufacturing process and if that was/is the case then B&O would be losing their credibility quickly and shamefully.

Simon.

Simon,

I think B&O were simply interested in adding a mobile phone and MP3 player to their range of products. Obviously they realised they could not enter this extremely competitive market from scratch and therefore got in touch with Samsung, who in all fairness can produce some excellent kit.

The Serene was in huge demand when it first launched in 2005. However in my opinion, the Serenata just was never as unique as the Serene and offered very little more tech-wise than the Serene, other than a sliding speaker and a very off-putting method of navigation.

The BeoSound 6 was greed and I doubt I could ever be convinced otherwise. In many cases, B&O has designed the look of a future product and then challenged the technicians to work around the design to create the best audio and visual experience possible. This was quite clearly not the case with BeoSound 6, as it looked exactly the same as its South Korean brother which had been launched before the BeoSound 6. The only difference was the metal finish. B&O were not interested in the time and effort to create their own BeoSound 6, took the cheaper and easier short-cut, and messed up.

I have never strongly criticized the Serene and Serenata because I do quite like them and I was excited to see this new category of products, even if it included the Samsung badge, but we all know they wouldn't have been possible without. 

On the other hand, and this is the point I would like to make is that B&O didn't need Samsung to create the BeoSound 6. They managed to surprise us with BeoSound 2 in the early days of the MP3 player and it really was competitive at the time. B&O could have put investment into BeoSound 6 to surprise us again, but didn't.

Yes I have squibbled, but I hope B&O realise that BeoSound 2 was a great product and that they could do this again by themselves. Maybe B&O thought the Serenata could be a competitor of the iPhone with both phone and music function but I would still like to be realistically ambitious and think that B&O could create a premium rival for an iPod Touch or similar.

timhanna:

hi, its a shame, i really love the serene... all i wished was that they didnt have the word samsung written on it!

They did consider selling a non-samsung branded version with fewer features - it was an empty hinged box with a circular keypad on the lid. Handy for snuff mind you