Bang & Olufsen, the Danish company best known for high-end audio products, announced new plans for future development and operations. The company will focus on the development of high quality audio and video products as well as sound systems for the automotive industry. As a result, it will abandon efforts in mobile telephony, MP3 players and stand-alone systems like DVD2 and HDR2. It will also cease to be involved in the development of co-branded products. The company wants to recapture its roots and the success of iconic products such as the BeoSound 9000 music system and the BeoLab 8000 loudspeaker as well as strong concepts such as the MX television line and the BeoVision 7 TVs, according to President and CEO Karl Kristian Hvidt Nielsen.
Its mobile phones consisted only of two products co-developed with Samsung: The Serene and the Serenata. The Serene was released back in 2006, the Serenata in 2007. Both sell for over USD$1000.