Did anybody else noticed that Loewe had 9% growth in 2007, this year they expect 7%. They are saying that a lot of this comes from very large TVs & Product Portfolio is key.

B&O needs to focus on keeping the TVs up to date. And they need to strive much higher for picture quality in the high end range BV9 and BV4 since there are complaints. That BS3 does not support most current projectors officially is a joke. That the BC6 and BV7 32 do not have multiple HDMI yet too. The BV8 should have had more then one and optional surround to make it appeal to a broader range. This was the main complain and even if it is the cheapest TV in the range, it is still a lot of money. Cinema Module should be an option for all.

Make it modular, make the customer pay. Offer a TV for the Video Freak with super picture, offer a TV that integrates for the audio freak. Make it small, make it large. if we are where we are because resources were pulled out of TV development to mobile phones, then this is definitely a mistake that needs to be fixed. A high end Audio System matching the BL5 should be there as well. 

Lastly, that they managed to integrate the Apple TV so nicely, that deserves huge kudos. Despite everything else, here they show clearly that they support the customer requests when they can. Even though it undermines their own products as ATV goes one on one against the Beomedia.

German Press Release below 

http://www.loewe.de/download/pm-bilanz-pk_2008_final.pdf 

jk1002:

...

 if we are where we are because resources were pulled out of TV development to mobile phones, then this is definitely a mistake that needs to be fixed.

...

This could be a part of the reason, however I think that the resources invested in CarFI is the main problem. The CarFI or Automotive project was started around year 2000 and have drained the cash. This will always be the case with a new project, but here timing has been bad. It left B&O without the capacity to produce enough BV7s when demand was high, and they have been unable to invest was is necessary in TV picture improvement through the last years of upswing and technology advances. Sure the CarFI will be a good investment, but how the upswing has passed, and they have almost just begin now to install a serious number of SoundSystems in cars.

They have however put money into development of new TV designs. Remember the '80-'90, years of LX and MX only. Now: BeoVision 4,6,7,8,9 in various sizes. With BeoSystem 3 they have just began to keep up with technology, but picture improvement needs to be implemented faster through out the whole portfolio.

If the Avant has been out for sale today, it would have cost 8.200 € with a 4 % price increase each year. An equal TV today would be a BV7-32 on motor stand with two BL4000s instead of the BL7-1, here the price is 8.600 €. This is why I do not think they must reduce prices, but improve picture quality THOUGH OUT the portfolio.

Just wanted to ad two extra points

1)
Since the millenium we have witnessed a TV rally, where most brands have made their buyers focus on contrast ratio, HD/Full HD, response time etc. making the consumers believe, that good specs. made the picture great. If you hear that your TV has the most updated set of specifications, most people don't think that picture quality can be found better anywhere else.

2)
Then some people look at the BV-7 they think: "Old model, has been around for years. I saw it once at my dealer in 2004, and picture was bad. Why don't they come out with a new model?!" - Not realizing that the insides of the BV-7 has been update several time. It is still the same model and outer casing, which might fool the costumer.