Dear fellow BeoWorlders,

I'm not sure whether this is just me being paranoid, but I stumbled across something today on the Samsung Mobile website which I would have preferred not to see. Here's a quote of the bad bit I read under the Features tab of the new Samsung F300 cell phone:

Smart Music

The fully integrated music player supports all the most commonly used formats, Windows DRM, includes FM radio and superior acoustic quality with Bang & Olufsen Ice Power.

 

It might just be me who thinks this is a big deal, but I went on to read that another two new Samsung cell phones will also have this supposed 'Bang & Olufsen ICE Power digital amplifier' as it is named under the Specifications tab.

Could this ACTUALLY be yet another hint that the new and upcoming BeoSound 6 really is a Samsung MP3 player just with some more stylish clothes on?!

Further still, could this be damaging the Bang & Olufsen brand? Samsung mass produce all of their products, including their cell phones so why are B&O putting their nose into Samsung's business? In my opinion, this is just more bad news and as Peter said just yesterday I think (perhaps for different reasons than myself) "B&O are cheesing me off recently" and they've just done so again.

Here's the link to the Samsung F300:

http://uk.samsungmobile.com/wcms/products/phones/phonedata/features/UK-SGH-F300.jsp

 

Ice Power in a cellphone? That seems strange... I never heard of that kind of technology in a phone.

If it's true, then it's not very good news. But it's not very bad either, we'll see what the future will bring. 

Class D amplifiers are not unique to B&O and there are lots of single chip Class D amplifier solutions available from chip manufacturers for consumer electronic applications. I would be suprised if this isn't the standard method of mobile phone amplification given the efficiency benefits (esp at low voltage) and the constant quest for extended battery life in mobile phones. B&O may be using their "ICE" brand name purely for marketing reasons, associating it with the highly respected BL5. It may well be that this particular amp is designed by B&O but it will be interesting to find out upon what it is based. It may well be an off the shelf device as power levels are only going to be very low and it would seem strange to design a ground up solution for something commonly available in the market - remember that some premium devices (BL8000 springs to mind) use readily available off the shelf integrated amplifier chip solutions.

Background Info

B&O do sell their ICE power technology to other companies - B&W spring to mind - and I have seen Samsung saying this before. I don't have a problem with this. In fact in the 80s it was not uncommon to see the B&O name on a number of products as they licensed the HX-Pro technology. Most just put Dolby HX-Pro on but a few more brand conscious mentioned B&O! Sometimes seen on Ebay!!

To be fair, B&O have not cheesed me off (well, no more than usual! ) more some of their representatives. However this is not the place to air my grievances.

I have a feeling that the phone charging base could well be a docking station with integrated speakers...

And what about the BS6 and the Samsung MP3 player? B&O and Samsung seem to be best buddies recently so I'm still a little undecided about these coincidences we've noticed.

9 LEE:

I have a feeling that the phone charging base could well be a docking station with integrated speakers...

Food for thought.

Lee

Bose docking station/speakers ???

B&O sell ICEpower amp's to more than 50 different companies producing amplifiers, loudspeakers, in-car solutions, etc.

Here are a few of them:

 

Can't see this as worrying at all - might be fun to see what ICEpower can do in a mobile phone. 

Just a rumour i heard, nothing else.

It would certainly stop them having the pick of video panels to go in their TV's

Hmmm food for thought...

Given the fact that Seree was not well recieved I thought B&O may reconsider thier position on this partnership..

Have a look at this.

I think they may have a limited venture.. couple of phones, mp3 and possibly something else to test the water along with the panels for their beovisions.

If a takeover was makde by Samsung and based on the above it could only be hostile as at a guess I would say the board are far from happy with the results to date?

 

Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?

Ah.. this is exactly the question i was asking!

9 LEE:

I get a horrible feeling though, that Samsung would love nothing more than to buy Bang & Olufsen.  They are a very ambitious company, and what a great little catch it would be to have such a prestige company with such a lovely history under its belt.

...

It would worry me if this were the case, even though they would be a great asset technically.  It would just take away some of the "magic" B&O has which lays in it's ownership and history if a mass manufacturer owned it.

Lee

In my mind, B&O has already started towards this path with the Serene.  I was disappointed to see the Serene on a wall with all the other scores of cell phones in a "Fortress" store [the local mass market electronics store -- the equivalent of Dixons or Malpins{?}], selling for a few hundreds dollars less than the Serene in the B&O shop up one level in the mall.  B&O had its Serene spot-lighted on a revolving platform in a glass case set on a column.  My girlfriend said the Serene in the Fortress shop looked "cheap and certainly not worth the price".

soundproof:

Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?

It is a little more complicated. I DK we typically have two classes of shares A and B. A-shares has 10 times more voting power than B-shares. The descendants control the firm, but they are not the majority shareholder. You cannot buy A-shares off the market.

Dividends, however, are distributed equally between A and B shares.

Christian:

soundproof:

Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?

It is a little more complicated. I DK we typically have two classes of shares A and B. A-shares has 10 times more voting power than B-shares. The descendants control the firm, but they are not the majority shareholder. You cannot buy A-shares off the market.

Dividends, however, are distributed equally between A and B shares.

Nice and informative post Christian, thank you.

I agree with Wings. I was never really happy to hear that B&O would design one of their own products with Samsung.

Add Henry: You are welcome!

Regarding Samsung and generel cooporation with other compagnies: I think it is ok, and necessary, that B&O buys much of the component from other manufactures. However they must never compromize their main values, like design and quality. They can charge 1000 € for a MP3 player if it is "real" B&O, but no-one will pay even 200 € if it is just a Samsung replica.

IMHO , the B&O / SAMSUNG relation looks like the case of LEICA and PANASONIC . if somebody tell me one day that SAMSUNG is offering to buy up B&O , i will be feel surprise .

OPPORTUNITIES (LET'S MAKE LOTS OF MONEY)  Lyrics of PET SHOP BOYS

" I've got the brains, you've got the looks
Let's make lots of money ."

I really can't see the alarm raised - it is entirely normal for a company to license any technology they develop to third parties and it doesn't mean that they are being taken over. It is just good commercial sense in that a generic technology can have more outlets than just those used by the originating company.

Christian:

soundproof:

Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?

It is a little more complicated. I DK we typically have two classes of shares A and B. A-shares has 10 times more voting power than B-shares. The descendants control the firm, but they are not the majority shareholder. You cannot buy A-shares off the market.

Dividends, however, are distributed equally between A and B shares.

Yes, but I do think the split is 60% A shares and 40% B shares. About 40% of the shares are tradeable, I'm being told by my business partner, who does way too much such trading. He'll hate it if I tell him he's wrong, so just let me know.

 

godotz:

IMHO , the B&O / SAMSUNG relation looks like the case of LEICA and PANASONIC . if somebody tell me one day that SAMSUNG is offering to buy up B&O , i will be feel surprise .

OPPORTUNITIES (LET'S MAKE LOTS OF MONEY)  Lyrics of PET SHOP BOYS

" I've got the brains, you've got the looks
Let's make lots of money ."

samsung is developing nearly everything from lcd to semi-conductor. What they need is to hire some B&o designer then no need to buy up B&o.

Gatex:

samsung is developing nearly everything from lcd to semi-conductor. What they need is to hire some B&o designer then no need to buy up B&o.

I think you can see the influence in a lot of samsung designs now, their range of digital cameras were very avantgarde and plasmas do have that B&O look about them...
 

soundproof:

Christian:

soundproof:

Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?

It is a little more complicated. I DK we typically have two classes of shares A and B. A-shares has 10 times more voting power than B-shares. The descendants control the firm, but they are not the majority shareholder. You cannot buy A-shares off the market.

Dividends, however, are distributed equally between A and B shares.

Yes, but I do think the split is 60% A shares and 40% B shares. About 40% of the shares are tradeable, I'm being told by my business partner, who does way too much such trading. He'll hate it if I tell him he's wrong, so just let me know.

 

He is wrong The split is actually almost 1:10. According to the annual report for 05/06, published medio 2006, there was issued 1.1 mill A shares and 11.3 mill B shares. At the time B&O Corp. owned 0.6 mill shares. Nothing about the distribution of value, however the holders of A shares controlles over 50 percent of the votes.

He-he. He'll eat crow. Could be he's thinking of the relative voting power of the shares.

Thanks for the clarification!