General Forum

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

ed7 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:49:03 GMT

that makes a pye in the sky

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

Bingo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:37:45 GMT

joeyboygolf:
Bingo:

Wouldn't it be a good idea that Philips takes over B&O? They have already owned a part in the past so know the company best I think.
Another crap idea Bingo.
I used to work for the Pye Group in the UK. It had been going strong since around 1940 or so. Then in the early 1970's Philips bought the company and within 20 years had virtually closed it all. Gone forever.
Is that what you want?
Also, to address another point. Companies like B&O commonly have 5 year product development time maybe longer. So what connection standard will you implement in your new product to be launched in 2013 and what will the media storage devices be like? What will the screen drivers be like?
Not easy questions to answer and my contention is that joe public does not have a clue. Get it wrong and your product is unsaleable.

Maybe they have to shorter the product development time and make a design more flexible . In the AV-world you have to be flexible nowadays to offer products which are up to date to common high-end marked standards. Not being 3 years too late with HDMI or offer 120 HZ LCD technology almost 2 years after the other A-brands did. If you want to place yourself as a premiumbrand, then make premium products as well. But if you offer a Beovision 8 with just one HDMI, you don't make yourself believable als premiumbrand in my opinion.

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

ed7 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:15:56 GMT

no nothing at all flappo

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

Flappo The Grate — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:50:20 GMT

really ?

good grief , i'd be really upset if that happened to me

what happened - did they give you some money back ?

i hope they at least apologised

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

ed7 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:13:37 GMT

Flappo The Grate:

yeah , philips are grate at inventing things - laserdisc and cd erc , but USELESS at making things
i had a philips tv and it actually blew up and caught fire - utter garbage
i'd rather sony or pioneer tbh

b&o not bad in their fireworks too flappo my avant caught fire the set was less than seven years from brand new

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

Flappo The Grate — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:59:08 GMT

yeah , philips are grate at inventing things - laserdisc and cd erc , but USELESS at making things

i had a philips tv and it actually blew up and caught fire - utter garbage

i'd rather sony or pioneer tbh

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

joeyboygolf — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:09:33 GMT

Bingo:

Wouldn't it be a good idea that Philips takes over B&O? They have already owned a part in the past so know the company best I think.

Another crap idea Bingo.

I used to work for the Pye Group in the UK. It had been going strong since around 1940 or so. Then in the early 1970's Philips bought the company and within 20 years had virtually closed it all. Gone forever.

Is that what you want?

Also, to address another point. Companies like B&O commonly have 5 year product development time maybe longer. So what connection standard will you implement in your new product to be launched in 2013 and what will the media storage devices be like? What will the screen drivers be like?

Not easy questions to answer and my contention is that joe public does not have a clue. Get it wrong and your product is unsaleable.

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

darioazul — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:12:50 GMT

Dear All:

There's some truth to the notion that 'customers do not know' what they want. When presented with options most surveyed customers want everything but still want ease of use. Independent design ideas are great but they need to be put through their paces by 'real' customers.

This forum could serve as a 'real' customer perspective. Perhaps not so much in the design but how to mix the designs with current technology expectations. I do not mean the latest and 'greatest' tech. B&O could have avoided the mistake of not including HDMI & other tech basics to some of their current offerings.

Dario

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

moxxey — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:04:41 GMT

Bingo:
Wouldn't it be a good idea that Philips takes over B&O? They have already owned a part in the past so know the company best I think.

What would B&O bring to Philips that they wouldn't be able to license from B&O?

B&O is a $900 million/year company. Philips is multi-billion $/year company. In fact, I seriously doubt Philips make their money from AV equipment and more likely from other, more commercial, sources.

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

Bingo — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:27:11 GMT

Wouldn't it be a good idea that Philips takes over B&O? They have already owned a part in the past so know the company best I think.

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

c1010 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:08:24 GMT

The article in Berlingske (in Danish); Stating that the way Torben was fired is the most "unbecoming" management action in Denmark in 2008.

http://www.business.dk/article/20080222/nyhedsmagasin/80220123/

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

Stan — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:55:56 GMT

Flappo The Grate:
unfortunately for bno , people DO know what they want
the general populace are much more intelligent and discerning than they believe , good lord , what a condescending attitude they show
their arrogance is outrageous !
with the internet it's very easy to find out aboot the competition's products and compare features and price
here's a simple message to the bno boffins
' adapt and survive OR perish'

the world won't work according to bno's bizarre philosophy , they - being a tiny insignificant little company ( do they even realise this ?? ) they will have to change and adapt to the modern world
fire lewis and get some young blood in - maybe johnny ive on a consultancy basis ?

I agree with many of your points, but to play devil's advocate for a moment - would the BS9000 exist if B&O was more "customer centric" in their design and development? I doubt it. I don't think the client base at the time it was designed could even conceive such a product - even today, there are people who "don't get it". At one time, there was a review somewhere (epinions or something) where the reviewer mentioned that it was the pinacle of silly design - why not just take 6 portable CD players and mount them on a board for 1/6 the price? ... and he has a point, but then he's also totally missing the point (imho). To you Apple lovers... do you think the iPhone came from a focus group?

I've designed products and I've witnessed the fact that "customers" have a hard time with a blank sheets of paper and/or radical ideas. You'll rarely come up with something totally innovative listening to your customers. Customers are great for product evolution, but less so for when it comes to revolution, and given bno's long product cycles, each new product family really needs to be a "revolution".

B&O has made their mistakes (although I happen to still like and use my Beosound 2), and can probably benefit from some new blood in the design camp. Then again, look at all the mistakes Sony has made in this same timeframe...

Stan

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

Craig — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:28:57 GMT

ed7:

this was the original article from businessweek magazine
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_45/b4057057.htm?chan=search

This article was posted on the Forum in the past I believe. Very interesting though.

Craig

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

ed7 — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:00:41 GMT

this was the original article from businessweek magazine

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_45/b4057057.htm?chan=search

Re: Bang & Olufsen Rises on Report of Possible Takeover Interest

Flappo The Grate — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:14:23 GMT

unfortunately for bno , people DO know what they want

the general populace are much more intelligent and discerning than they believe , good lord , what a condescending attitude they show

their arrogance is outrageous !

with the internet it's very easy to find out aboot the competition's products and compare features and price

here's a simple message to the bno boffins

' adapt and survive OR perish'

the world won't work according to bno's bizarre philosophy , they - being a tiny insignificant little company ( do they even realise this ?? ) they will have to change and adapt to the modern world

fire lewis and get some young blood in - maybe johnny ive on a consultancy basis ?