Manufacturing lifespan of Bang & Olufsen products

It is rather interesting that some products are manufactured for a relatively long time whilst others have no more than a few years before the production line is terminated.

The Beolab 1 was manufactured 2000-2006 but the Beolab Penta 1987-2000 - 6 years versus 13 years. The Beolab 6000 and 8000 are still in production since 1992 although modified recently to 6002 and 8002 - 18 years!

Our much cherished Beosound 9000 came to an end recently - was it a format transition from CD to digital streaming, or falling sales figures or B&O wanting to send out a more digital message by dropping physical formats.

Do you think it's largely a financial decision or do the designers and managers pull a product if they feel it looks dated in any way? Were you ever heartbroken when a product was deleted from production? Have you ever been successful in predicting the deletion of a product from the range? Do you think B&O should change products more quickly or are they going to fast for your liking/needs? What current products do think will still be with is in 5 years and which do you see falling out of production?

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seethroughyou:

Do you think it's largely a financial decision or do the designers and managers pull a product if they feel it looks dated in any way? 

No manufacturer will pull a product purely on a decision that it may or may not look dated. It's customers who ultimately decide this fate and everyone will take an objective view on any B&O kit (for example, I think the column speakers look very 'early 90s', design wise, but love the BL3s).

The reason why products are discontinued will be either due declining demand and/or increasing costs. I think it's fairly common knowledge that the CD mechanism in a BC2 and BC9000 wasn't cheap. When demand lowers and manufacturing costs go up, you get to a point where it's not as cost-effective to produce certain products. Plus B&O need to display the newer products and stores can easily become cluttered.

The longer a product is manufactured the more profitable it is for the company.  These products are often referred to as cash cows because instead of milk they generate cash.  The development cost are paid off because the number of units produced exceeds the plan.  One of the largest cash cows in Bang & Olufsens history was the Beomaster 1900/2400 and all it's variations up to the 4500.  

The Beosystem 5000 and Beolab/Vox Pentas were.  The Beolab 3000/5000 wall speakers were not money makers I heard.

I'm sure the Beosound 2500 up to the 3000/4000 was a cash cow. I doubt that the 3200 was due to the fees paid to the outside software developer.  The Beolab 4000/ 6000/ 8000 were cash cows.  The Beolab 1 I doubt since it never sold like the Pentas did.

the Beosound 9000 may have been in the end but the development costs were very high over five years work put in.  

Today B&O needs a couple of cash cows and that now means unit sales in the hundred of thousands of units not thousands.  I doubt that has occurred with any of the Play products.

Up until the early 1960s every B&O model was one year only regardless of succes.
Every new year saw a bunch of new models.
People arestill asking for new models all the time but todays situation just cannot allow for it to happen.

Martin

expoman:

The longer a product is manufactured the more profitable it is for the company.  These products are often referred to as cash cows because instead of milk they generate cash.

In regards to the BL9000, BC2 etc, not when the components become more expensive over time. Specialist CD mechanisms and so on have increased the cost of manufacturing. In recent years as manufacturing costs increased and, of course, demand reduced. When demand reduces, the costs go up as you can't source components in quantity.

We have a similar problem. If we can pre-pay for, say, 10,000 units of a particular product, money talks. We get the best possible price. Problem is, when demand reduces, our ability to justify stocking such quantities of product, reduces. We can only play on order of, say, 500 units. 500 units does not get a supplier excited, so we end up paying top dollar prices, we have to put our sale prices up, demand drops even further. It's a cycle you struggle to break.

Were you ever heartbroken when a product was deleted from production?

Have you ever been successful in predicting the deletion of a product from the range?

Do you think B&O should change products more quickly or are they going too fast for your liking/needs?

What current products do think will still be with is in 5 years and which do you see falling out of production?