With all the new products coming this of next year, I wonder;

Will those new products turn the tide for B&O and make it a healthy company again?

Or do you think that a lot of prices are still much to high to reach a large amount of new buyers?

Just tell me how you think about it.

I think giving that we are in a middle of a global recession it will be tricky for a while. 2nd question is, can they keep up the speed they are running at?

I am guessing that Beovision 7 32, Beovision 6 26, Beovision 8 40 and Beovision 10 all carry the same mainboard and the difference is really just speaker and size /design. That would be a very good move though as updating it should be much easier for them.

JK

I think the biggest problem for B&O will be the future of the financial crisis.

And there is a real B&O Product missing. Something noone has and is able to build.

They could reach new buyers with lower prices this is true but they would also loose their exclusiveness.

Making the BS3 cheaper would shurely be a good move, but the BV4-103 isn't.

It is not uncommon when times are hard to lay off sales and marketing folk and concentrate efforts in engineering both on current product cost reduction activities and also on new product development. The new product development thing can be a brave thing to do when cash is tight as it is a medium term investment but these will be the product that pick your business off the floor when the economies recover.

Of course it doesn't always work

I think the new products sound exciting and, in a B&O universe, promise to be better value for money.

New products, great.

But the reorganisation of the service-system as well as the new long-term productstrategy

(digital platform / shared components) could give B&O additional strenght IMHO.

>Making the BS3 cheaper would shurely be a good move, but the BV4-103 isn't.<

I think we can't really judge that. It depends how much they invested and what they expect to get back. Obviously they are not targeting normal customers with it. I think this is mend  to be for hotel and business use. An extravagant suite with a 103" screen? Why not. A living room style lobby in a hotel? Perfect. Keep in mind that in daylight situations a projector won't work. And since it will only be shown in few selected cities I think they know what the market is for this.

I personally do not worry about the BV4-103. Just a few will be ordered and it is really not the size that people will buy often, even they live in big houses.

I hope that the new products will give a much bigger group of people the feeling they buy something that is worth the money. One of the big problems now for Bang & Olufsen.

their products only really require subtle tweaking imo , the inclusion of dvb-t as standard on ALL their tv's would be a start

it's not so much lowering the prices as raising the level

bno have to be known once more as THE best av maker available on the high street , they were once , i'm sure they can capture that essence again

Agree, I don't have a big issue with the 103" BV4. However, I have two concerns with the 103" one: First, it is to expensive that it will be shown by many dealers to show this impressive TV with the moving stand, second, not sure if the development resources this landmark  project had eaten up were well spend....you only can spend your R&D $ once.

Talking to dealers, for them new products are essential to get customers into the shop, so many new products spread over the next couple of mounth should help! 

I will never understand the people that honestly believe that lowering the prices is not neccesary. If you see for example the advice-prices of the new 2009 Neo-plasmas from Panasonic including a high definition Freesat and Freeview tuner build in, I really hold my breath....

http://whathifi.com/News/Panasonic-unveils-full-UK-2009-Viera-TV-range/

LOL the good old Bingo If I look to the Panas. Im sure it has great sound reproduction with deep bass and clear midrange... c'mon. even the B&o's TV sound solution cost as much as the whole Pana-TV...

There are a lot of people who do not need exeptional sound from a TV. I tell you honestly, I have had a Beosystem AV9000 and Avant with two pentas in front and two Beolabs 8000 in the back. So I enjoyed a good sound for more then 15 years.

Now I have a 46 inch LED backlight LCD in the bedroom and after a while, I do not miss the sound from the livingroom at all. It is the picture that takes me away.

I think it works that way for a lot of people. And people who want more, buy home cinemasets. RF will be the new remote standard from next year and HDMI-CEC let devices communicate with each other.

I think the right way is a little bit of all.

Lowering the price is a good possibility to get more costumers but it only workls if the products are good, inovative and stylish.

We're talking about one of the hardest markets here. The competition is very hard and the other big companys already have problems with the market, so B&O mustn't enter the low-pricing market. They should concentrate on the costumers who are looking for something special.

I think the only real competitor for B&O is Loewe. The future products lead the right way and the prices of the new ones are very good I think.

In my opinion B&O should lower some prices of the current collection. The "this is the price and will always be" mentality is the wrong because technology is expensive at the beginning and then it becoms cheaper. Thats the market!

Profit can be gained through two values, one is the mass and the second one is the price. I think lowering the prices just a bit will be a good way to hold the balance between these two.

As I said before I don't think the BV4-103 is very clever because the development costs are probably higher than the earnings will be.

But why can't you buy a 50 inch plasma from B&O below the 10.000 euros? Everyone knows the panels don't cost much nowadays.

If you have a top model 50 inch with the latest neo-plasma panel from Panasonic for less then 2000 euros, why can't B&O make a 50 inch plasma for 4000 euro? I think that is expensive enough.

Groentje :

But why can't you buy a 50 inch plasma from B&O below the 10.000 euros? Everyone knows the panels don't cost much nowadays.

If you have a top model 50 inch with the latest neo-plasma panel from Panasonic for less then 2000 euros, why can't B&O make a 50 inch plasma for 4000 euro? I think that is expensive enough.

 

As I said before, the OLD prices have to be lowered

I think the BV4-50 is a great example for the bad "this is the price and will always be" mentality B&O has.

I already know some retailers that say buy a Pana and we will install everything

BeoBau:

As I said before I don't think the BV4-103 is very clever because the development costs are probably higher than the earnings will be.

Not necessarily - someone else has already developed the actual panel. All processing is pretty much the same as in smaller TVs so the differences concentrate on the power supply and mechanics, which I don't expect to be exactly groundbreaking technology.

Secondly, I'm sure they will be happy to break even, or lose a little money with this model - just having it exist will work as marketing...

...and if you are likely to buy speaker, hifi, linkroom TVs... if you buy that TV.

Groentje :

But why can't you buy a 50 inch plasma from B&O below the 10.000 euros? Everyone knows the panels don't cost much nowadays.

If you have a top model 50 inch with the latest neo-plasma panel from Panasonic for less then 2000 euros, why can't B&O make a 50 inch plasma for 4000 euro? I think that is expensive enough.

 

Same old posts just a different name!!!!

Groentje :

But why can't you buy a 50 inch plasma from B&O below the 10.000 euros? Everyone knows the panels don't cost much nowadays.

If you have a top model 50 inch with the latest neo-plasma panel from Panasonic for less then 2000 euros, why can't B&O make a 50 inch plasma for 4000 euro? I think that is expensive enough.

A Bv4 panel on its own without BS3 is below 10000 euros. In the uk it is about £5000, probably around 6000 euros.