According to the financial statement, published 5 min. ago:

DVD2, BV8-32, Beo5, "Serenata" and BS6 will be launched during this year.

Next year a "New audio concept, which will set the standard for musical enjoyment in the home" will be launched.

And all the mentioned products (+ EarSet 3, US launch initially) will be launched within the next 3 months. The "cool" products will be the Serenata and the Beo5.

The "new audio concept" has been re-designed a couple of times, initially known to us as the AV1 (aka BeoCenter 5). This could be some 12+ months away... an early guess was a price just below the BeoLab 5 (pair), and we will understand why the BM1 is only a option on the BV9. The soft touch panel known from the BeoCenter 2 will be taken one step further (see the light!). Those that have followed the information released for the AV1 on the previous and the current BeoWorld forum will know what type of product this is.

Roger

Getting really excited !! A new audio system …….whow!

BV8 is mentioned in terms of price like the role the MX had.

15 – 20 % of Audi A8/S8 buyers order the B&O advanced sound system.

Nothing about the new Beolink home network …

Link to the report:   http://www.bang-olufsen.com/graphics/bogo/reports/BO_0703_FUK.pdf

They say, that Beo4 and Beo5 will be the corner stone in the operation of systems for many years to come.

This indicates nothing about a new (simple) remote, and a discontinue of the Beo4

Roger:

...Those that have followed the information released for the AV1 on the previous and the current BeoWorld forum will know what type of product this is.

Roger

Any clues?? Links to old posts??

Sadly is doesn't say anything about a larger panel (46") for the BV 7........ So, is a larger panel going to come out????

The "new audio concept" is fairly top secret, so we will have to hope that someone can spill the beans this Fall...

There has been a shift in sales from 7-32 to 7-40 this year, and I guess B&O is fully aware of the fact that even European customers now consider the 7-40 to be barely big enough for a home cinema solution. The 7-series is a major success for B&O, and if they are to continue cashing in on this beautiful product they will have to consider a 7-46 with a matching BeoLab 7.3. And a lot can be said about the Danes, but when it comes to business they are rather cynical

Roger

Reading the company's financial report shows that the UK has had a 4% drop in revenue compared with last year, Holland also saw a drop otherwise the rest of the world appeared to be in line with expectation. This is the second year where the UK revenues have dropped, yet the overall gross margins were up by 0.6% to 46.6%. Its not really clear to me why this drop in revenue, like Denmark & Germany it makes up a very large part of the overall business and perhaps the products are just lasting to long and not being replaced so often.

AV1 sounds promising! Certainly has been a long time coming!

Wonder how it will look.. is it a homage to the 9500/9000? including some form of digital control??? i.e. BM1?  

Keith Saunders:

Reading the company's financial report shows that the UK has had a 4% drop in revenue compared with last year, Holland also saw a drop otherwise the rest of the world appeared to be in line with expectation. This is the second year where the UK revenues have dropped, yet the overall gross margins were up by 0.6% to 46.6%. Its not really clear to me why this drop in revenue, like Denmark & Germany it makes up a very large part of the overall business and perhaps the products are just lasting to long and not being replaced so often.

 

Given that pricing for consumer electronics has been in heavy decline and that B&O have altered this trend by INCREASING prices I think they have done well considering.

It would also seem that as B&O moves toward ultimate lifestyle status!  that the brand will appeal to a more limited audience as pricing moves to levels that defy the market and a large percentage of customers decide to buy increasingly advanced  products elsewhere; In addition I think the sales drops in the UK in particular have far further to go ;as the franchise system whereby the store owners HAVE to buy all new products masks the true sales drop. In non flagship stores i would suspect that the footfall is very slow. For B&O its reasonably good for business but I feel for the dealers who must doubt the huge investment in stock will ever provide a suitable return and if new product will sell at a good margin that fully covers the losses selling outdated stock. ( particularly bad with lcd and plasma)

Its a great pity that many dealers im sure will have to close as the policy of B&O is not sympathetic to the smaller store owners and this is something that B&O as a company should be worried about. In recent times most of them have just about survived selling BV7 and bl8000.

There does come a time when even the extremely wealthy wont be exchanging the BV4 /5 they bought 4 years ago to find it worth next to nothing now- so im not sure its a question of products lasting to long- but questioning the logic of such a purchase with great and greater unease as the prices move into orbit! and perhaps wondering what size pioneer plasma they can buy for the cost of a beo5!!

No small TV for the US and no mentioning of an upgraded BV7 32 for Europe. I wouldn't be surprised if they drop that one. May not make much sense to equip it with a BS3 and without it won't hold up to the 40".

 

JK

355f:

Keith Saunders:

Reading the company's financial report shows that the UK has had a 4% drop in revenue compared with last year, Holland also saw a drop otherwise the rest of the world appeared to be in line with expectation. This is the second year where the UK revenues have dropped, yet the overall gross margins were up by 0.6% to 46.6%. Its not really clear to me why this drop in revenue, like Denmark & Germany it makes up a very large part of the overall business and perhaps the products are just lasting to long and not being replaced so often.

 

Given that pricing for consumer electronics has been in heavy decline and that B&O have altered this trend by INCREASING prices I think they have done well considering.

It would also seem that as B&O moves toward ultimate lifestyle status!  that the brand will appeal to a more limited audience as pricing moves to levels that defy the market and a large percentage of customers decide to buy increasingly advanced  products elsewhere; In addition I think the sales drops in the UK in particular have far further to go ;as the franchise system whereby the store owners HAVE to buy all new products masks the true sales drop. In non flagship stores i would suspect that the footfall is very slow. For B&O its reasonably good for business but I feel for the dealers who must doubt the huge investment in stock will ever provide a suitable return and if new product will sell at a good margin that fully covers the losses selling outdated stock. ( particularly bad with lcd and plasma)

Its a great pity that many dealers im sure will have to close as the policy of B&O is not sympathetic to the smaller store owners and this is something that B&O as a company should be worried about. In recent times most of them have just about survived selling BV7 and bl8000.

There does come a time when even the extremely wealthy wont be exchanging the BV4 /5 they bought 4 years ago to find it worth next to nothing now- so im not sure its a question of products lasting to long- but questioning the logic of such a purchase with great and greater unease as the prices move into orbit! and perhaps wondering what size pioneer plasma they can buy for the cost of a beo5!!

I agree with your points, but why is this not effecting other large European countries in the same way was really my point. There is a small effect in Denmark, but most other countries showed their planned growth

 

 

 

Keith, I think in reality sales are down throughout the EU region but product launches and the way the accounts have been compiled mask this.

If one looks at new product launches just this year, BV9, BL9 ect. Every dealer has to have one of each item for stock- so all this counts as sales. In reality whats happening is that units moved have fallen but individual large ticket items make up the sales figures.

the real evidence will be in the interim report and then we shall see if the dealers are moving these new productsat a sufficient rate. Also out of home markets and Germany the UK is the biggest market by far; so for sales volumes to increase in other less well established countries- its an easy task.  But when sales drop in one of your largest markets- this should be a worry for B&O at the present time

As expected no really news. Most of the news will be launched within a few months. I also noticed that they only announce a single new product second half year. It seems to me that they will not announce new products before they know they can launch it at the right time. Maybe we will see a single new product added. BC5 sounds great. I hope this new audio will have the same effect as BL5 in new BeoSounds to be launched in the future.

Well I thought that was very interesing to read and thank you to MultimediaRobert for the link.
Amongst the things that I found interesting was the fact that the two B1 stores which sell the most in the whole world are both in Moscow!
I am also surprised that there is no mention of BeoX and also wonder who the other highend motor manufacturer is? Bet you it's Bentley.

Andy T.

About BeoCenter 5 -- or whatever it will be named:

Welcome to the forum, Klaus
Thank you for taking the time to make your first post so interesting.
You say you have been following the forum for some years and it makes me wonder, how many others read this regularly and don't sign up?
May I be so bold as to ask you what it was that prompted you to join Beoworld today rather than last week/month/year?
Oh and Yes, they are a wonderful group of people
Kindest regards,

Andy T.

I was thinking, if products like DVD2 and BV8-32 weren´t delayed, what new products could be expected?

For various reasons (i.e. delays ) quite a few products will be launched this year, and I do not expect that B&O will be able to launch that many products for the next 1-2 years. But they are aiming high!

Roger

-multimedia Robert-:

Getting really excited !! A new audio system …….whow!

...

 

if you think the new audio system will be BS6, then you will be disappointed, because the BS6 is an MP3-player. The real audio system that has been talked about round here seems to be the BS5, which I miss from the report...

A "new audio concept" - very exciting, but what about a "new media concept" ... isn't that what we are waiting for? What I mean is of course a substantial upgrade of the Beomedia 1. Or maybe B&O will go for both a Beomedia 2 and a BeoCenter 5? Do they still hold the principle of separating pure audio from audiovideo holy? To me such a division is a little bit old fashioned.

/Munin