What a day for Apple!!!

I agree with the two previous posters 

welcome back soundproof !

I'm as eager to see B&O reconnect with its core customers as any member of the forum. And I'm pleased that the Chinese market is contracting, as that should keep the bling-factor down as far as B&O products go.

The fact that I appreciate the ease of use and opportunities for pro-grade quality that Apple provides as a back-end, doesn't keep me from having B&O speakers and screens as front ends ... B&O have finally embraced the format that the Mac OS provides, which is the format of choice for users. I believe Tim Cook recently showed that over 90% of all tablet interactions with the internet happens through iPads - it's impossible to ignore that, just as it was impossible to ignore the emergence of CDs, once they happened.

I'm streaming my Qobuz lossless FLAC to my stereo controlled from my iPad, and enjoying an endless voyage of discovery of new music thanks to that streaming service. All made possible through the ease of use that Apple provides now, and which once used to be a B&O hallmark.

Thanks for the words of welcome. I've been quite busy - but in the near future I will be heading down to Classic Audio and Frede Kristensen, to pick up a few items that he has lovingly restored for me. I'm amazed I've been able to put it off!

 

wtlc2zpx:

However the decision to not distribute the Beo5/6 configuration software was made to drive people into the shops - And pay for the service.

I don't fully agree with that. Giving public access to the configuration tool would give the impression that programming it is something you should so yourself without the need for technical assistance. In actual fact a poorly programmed remote is worse than a Beo4, whereas a well programmed Beo6 can be amazing - but it takes a lot of training, experience and talent to create a good configuration - like most other brands Bang & Olufsen wanted to ensure that the Beo5/6 experience would be a great experience for all customers, and that meant keeping control of the programming. You wouldn't try and reprogram your iPad, or your home automation system, a remote control of this sophistication is just the same concept.

Yes, it presents a good opportunity to bring customers back into the store - but if we have programmed it well in the first place then there is never a need for them to bring the remote back. I very rarely see a customer bringing a remote into the showroom.

As for remote programming being chargeable, that is up to the dealer not B&O. It's a service carried out by professionals who have been trained and have overheads to operate a business so it should be chargeable, though personally i have sold hundreds of remotes and have never ever charged a penny for either initial programming or subsequent reprogramming - rightly or wrongly that is just the relationship I have with my customers - when the buy a product I want to see them get the best possible experience from it so I will happily drive out to their house an reprogram the remote where required for free.

I just think the idea being put forward on this thread that B&O are somehow engineering after care to be more profitable for the dealers is a bit obscene and way beyond what is actually the case. When my car needs fixing I can do it myself or pay a trained technician - i don't feel hard done by that Mercedes don't let me have a copy of the engine management software?

Martin, we are talking about a silly remote control here that is totally over priced - you can't compare that to a precision made Mercedes car that is designed to cruise at 150mph all day on the motorway :)

Hi Martin,

It is great that you're doing it for free. The dealer in London which sold me the remote would only do a basic programming for free and you'd have to pay for the changes. Some people live far away from a dealer which can also be a problem. Channels get renumbered regularly on DVB and Satellite.

I have the software and there is nothing too complex about it - If I add a 50 pounds DVD player to the back of my TV, and I am being charged 100 pounds by my dealer for the pleasure of having an extra key, then I am very unhappy. It should be left as a choice.

What was "put forward" Martin, was the statement "some claim it was to provide revenue to dealers from installation."

I once spent six weeks of my life presenting the B&O communication platform to all the dealers in Europe, in the UK and Portugal. Some of those making that claim were in the audience.

Hyperbole? What is undeniable is that getting B&O units to communicate well is complex, and requires special installation. In my home market, many customers have been livid to discover what it cost to do the "no cables visible" installation they were hoping for, sometimes surpassing the actual purchase of components (no, I'm not exaggerating.)

I guess I shouldn't mention BeoMedia, but there you are. Remember that beauty?

The major point of my post was that the brilliant user interface and interaction that made B&O famous was lost somewhere down the line, ending up with something that had limited appeal. And let's not even think about programming CD track names into one particular BeoSound 3200.

At some point, someone at Struer should have said: "this isn't working, we can't release this now. Look at this!" And then he should have demonstrated Gracenote on a computer.

So let's hope that the B&O front-ends will deliver undeniable satisfaction. I'm very pleased that the focus seems to be on the acoustics and the audio, and look forward to new statement speakers, that will probably end up in one of my listening rooms.

Only silly thing was in the old days when B&O went to bed with Microsoft!

bayerische:

Only silly thing was in the old days when B&O went to bed with Microsoft!

As silly as this very thread and the stock sled ride since its posting?

ɓʋɾɑɳɫɘɮ:

bayerische:

Only silly thing was in the old days when B&O went to bed with Microsoft!

As silly as this very thread and the stock sled ride since its posting?

I don't have any Apple stock, so I'm not concerned. But stock wise, the company is probably still very much overrated (stock wise). But having Wozniak on TV saying "some people say the stock is going to hit 1000 dollars" might make a few opportunists .  

Apple has still a long way to Nokias stock, luckily. 

Just as well B&O have ditched microsuck ;

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/12/26/microsoft-surface-trampled-at-bottom-tablet-pile/

"Further supporting the idea that Microsoft’s debut tablet wasn’t a big seller this holiday season, Twitter user A.X. Ian did a quick analysis of tweets discussing new tablets during a 24-hour period around Christmas Eve.

Based on his data, 1,795 people tweeted about getting a new iPad during that time span while 250 tweeted about their new Kindle Fires, 100 mentioned their new Nexus 10 tablets and just 36 tweets were posted by users who had received a new Surface."

OUCH

The iPad is really on top of the game. iPhone too, but not really as on top of the game as the iPad, since there was a smart phone market already, compared to a non existent tablet market.

bayerische:

Only silly thing was in the old days when B&O went to bed with Microsoft! 

I have The B&O Play Journal (1st Issue, December 2013) on my desk now.

Page 4 - iPad

Page 5 - iPhone and B&O sponsored iOS app

Page 6 - bunch of Beolit 12 on a designer's desk, but the only logo on it is her iMac's

Page 7 - Beolit 12 specs - for "iPhone, iPod or iPad"

Page 10 - BeoPlay A9 specs - for "Airplay"

Page 25 - Article: "What is the deal with Airplay?" - AppleTV, iPhone, iPad

Backcover - Large photos of a Mac desktop, iPhone, and iPad.  Copy: "Hey wait!  There's more than this..."

 

Whoever at B&O decided in the late 1990s that B&O would tie its technologies to Microsoft were not very smart persons.  At all.

Hopefully their successors have not stumbled into the correct solution –B&O + Apple– too late.

duplicate.

XavierItzmann:

bayerische:

Only silly thing was in the old days when B&O went to bed with Microsoft! 

I have The B&O Play Journal (1st Issue, December 2013) on my desk now.

Page 4 - iPad

Page 5 - iPhone and B&O sponsored iOS app

Page 6 - bunch of Beolit 12 on a designer's desk, but the only logo on it is her iMac's

Page 7 - Beolit 12 specs - for "iPhone, iPod or iPad"

Page 10 - BeoPlay A9 specs - for "Airplay"

Page 25 - Article: "What is the deal with Airplay?" - AppleTV, iPhone, iPad

Backcover - Large photos of a Mac desktop, iPhone, and iPad.  Copy: "Hey wait!  There's more than this..."

 

Whoever at B&O decided in the late 1990s that B&O would tie its technologies to Microsoft were not very smart persons.  At all.

Hopefully their successors have not stumbled into the correct solution –B&O + Apple– too late.

 

The opposition to things Apple was so great that BeoSound 2 was first released without drivers for connection to Macs. Some genius had looked at total platform sales, and found that the Apple market was too small to be bothered with -- not realizing that the proportion of Apple users who were likely B&O customers was higher than the platform share (significantly higher). There were so many complaints from Apple users that they had to make the drivers anyway.

The then CEO was picked because of his excellent relationship to Microsoft (after developing PC-controlled toys for LEGO). And that meant an even greater hurdle against implementing Apple-friendly solutions and interfaces.

The result of this was that highly paid executives struggling with their BeoMedias and later BeoSystems, had kids using iPod/iPhone/Apple Express and MacMinis (or their laptops) that delivered interface solutions that were vastly superior. All of this could have been a part of the B&O interface, of course.

Now, this is not a hindsight perspective. At my first meeting with B&O management in Struer, to be evaluated for working with their strategy, I was clearly too enthusiastic about Apple. During a break in the meeting, my partner came up to me and said he'd overheard a manager saying "Pack your Mac, go back" to a colleague, in reaction to my description of what was coming down the pipeline from Cupertino.

We pushed the opportunities in selling active speakers to be connected to Mac's (and other platforms) with B&O supplied "bespoke" DACs (2005/2006). I think a tremendous opportunity was lost there -- but it's not easy for companies to change course, particularly not when they've bet the farm (!) on a given direction. Think Blockbuster missing what Netflix did; or SONY, which could definitely have created an iTunes-like interface, market and players -- instead of giving the opportunity to Apple. SONY management was so into their MiniDisc-player that they couldn't abandon it for the better thing.

Yet - when thinking of the considerable overlap between the B&O and Apple design expressions, the premium price point of both customer groups, and the obvious inroad to a younger market that an Apple-friendly strategy would have created - this really has to be considered a huge missed opportunity.

I think people got confused by what Apple was, thinking it was a hardware company, and therefore a competitor. In the areas relevant to B&O's products, Apple was a medium (just as vinyl, CDs, VHS and DVD had been before). Failing to see that set them back ten years.

(To jog our memories as to how quickly things have changed: Wikipedia was launched in January 2001; iPod and iTunes came later in 2001; iTunes Store 2003; Facebook 2004; YouTube 2005; etc.

Right now I'm streaming a French movie from my national broadcaster to my BeoVision 8, from an iPad via an AppleTV. Content piped to me via the internet, distributed from an Apple Extreme WiFi. Shown without any glitches - what a change we've lived through, in just ten years.)