Bose announces it's cutting 10 percent of its workforce
By Laura June 
posted Jan 20th 2009 6:37PM
posted Jan 20th 2009 6:37PM
Well, more awful news being flung our way. Bose, hallowed manufacturers of a plethora of fine iPod docks and countless other expensive, luxurious electronic goods, has just announced 1,000 job cuts. That means that about 10 percent of their workforce -- across several areas, including their manufacturing sector -- will be out of work in the very near future. The Bose rep cited the decline in the global economy as the main reason for the "reductions." Reductions? Cute.
No highs, no lows, must be Bose.
And I'm not talking about stock prices...
Tee-hee!
Brilliant comment. +1
maybe the bose execs should listen to some focals in their cars to hear what real speakers sound like
Buy Other Sound Equipment.
The only good product from Bose was the original 901. Here is a review from 1975: http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/425/
The rest is overpriced stuff that just is decent but only average. Other mainstream manufactures like Boston Acoustics and Polk are far, far better.
BAs are good, polks sound tinny
I have been a fan of their innovative styling and design for many, many years. However, I could never justify paying the price -- and I never felt like I was losing anything performance-wise. It looks like I definitely wasn't the only one.
Hmmm....more products I intentionally avoided due to poor quality? Sounds like Bose may qualify for a government bailout. They may get my money after all but at least I wont have to listen to their shitty speakers.
Also, it appears that Engadget has disabled highest rank. If you click the timestamp on my original comment, it shows highest ranked, but it only shows highly ranked in the normal comment space.
I found Polks to be pretty flat (in a good way). I do prefer "warmer" though. For the money I think BA is the way to go.
No doubt the cuts are in engineering, not marketing....
"I have been a fan of their innovative styling and design for many, many years."
Bose or Bang & Olufsen? :P
@suicycle.com
I wouldn't go as far as calling the design innovative. Sure it's no problem making speakers that look swanky when you don't care about sound quality. The only technical requirement of a Bose speaker is that they can fit their 2.5" paper cone woofer in the enclosure.
Making the speakers look good and sound good - That's innovation!
Full ACK.
Bose - Better Sound Through Marketing
the second guy wants a decent job and a family man aged 44. He is the gay!
Bose used to sell box cutters and tennis balls. When I was setting up a TV in my grandma's apartment, I came across an old Boss catalog from I believe 1988. It was freaking hilarious. XD
No highs, no lows, it must be Bose.
There must be an echo in here.
I think Bose is good for the size but that's not really a compliment.
More jobs lost. I didn't support Obama during the election but I just hope he does a good job because we all need it.
Kevin O'Doyle: Yeah, well my father's stereo is a Bose.
Adam Sandler: Your father's stereo blows? That's too bad!
if Bose just lowered the pricing of their poor products, then I think they could easily raise more revenue and keep a few more employees, but no, they are even more elitist than Apple.
Not really a goodanalogy. This difference is that while Apple products are premium priced, they deliver. I just got one of the new MacBooks, and it is damn fast under OSX. I can run a virtual linux server, a copy of windows, photoshop CS4 all at the same time with no lag. Yes it was expensive, but I prefer Photoshop and Illustrator under MacOS, and I was willing to pay for it.
Bose on the other hand is expensive, but it sounds like crap compared to similarly priced stuff from other manufactures. Bose is in the same class with Jensen and Craig, but priced like Polk and Klipsch.
..so they should lower the prices of everything?
Yes, before I get flamed, I have heard most of bose's stuff. It was bad for the price, not utter crap
Most of bose products have astronomical prices but they just don't deserve them. They are best slightly better than other cheap manufacturers and by slightly I mean they're not or the certainly cost a lot A year age. Bose are the last people I'd go to. If they cut the price to the level they deserve then I'd think about it. I'm not surprised at all. I'm surprised they weren't in this situation before the global problems.
I think they have been trying to do so, way before economic recession hit the US. They just can't make up a good excuse. And now, they don't even need one. Anyway, their manufacturing sector is basically a dog without a bone, since most of the orders has already been taken by ODMs like 广州国光 somewhere in China.
Hey, check this out. Don't mind those frigging Chinese characters.
Just focus on the stock chart, you can see the sudden erection of 广州国光's stock, right after this news:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbaidu.hexun.com%2Fstock%2Fq.php%3Fcode%3D002045&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Gosh, I hope that 10% didn't include the research team that is hopefully figuring out how to prevent the in-ear headphones from giving me static shocks on a regular basis.
It's called static electricity. Quit squirming around in your chair while listening to your music and the shocks might stop. Or replace the foam/ plastic covers so the bare metal isn't touching your ear.
It doesn't need a research team to work out that you need to quit shuffling on carpet.
It depends on how your system is grounded and what kind of magnetic field you sit in. I went through a couple of pairs by different manufacturers until I figured it out. Both my V-moda and my Senheisers do this. I used to have two 20" CRTs on my desk and I would get zapped every 10 minutes or so. The zapping went way down when I switched to LCDs, although it did not eliminate it 100%.
How about making BETTER products and selling them CHEAPER. Wow. Maff is hard.
I hope that tomorrow your boss asks you to increase your productivity whilst taking a pay cut, just to see if you can stomach your own advice!
Actually, your response fails. It's not like increasing productivity/taking a pay cut at all.
The key of business is to find the sweet spot where a product is affordable and desirable to the greatest market segment, while still being above cost.
Tuning these factors, either by lowering the sale price so more people can afford it, or increasing the quality to make it more desirable may yield a much more dramatic rise in profits than was lost by lowering the cost, or by increasing the quality.
I never really liked anything Bose, and I don't intend to ever buy one of their products, but I hope those workers are able to find jobs
I find that picture to be very depressing.
Your finding is understandable! You and the people in that picture, are of the same color saturation level, which is zero. I think this is the reason.
The picture is very depressing. Engadget you really should stop posting up pics like that.
No real surprise hear. People who thinks Bose makes great products just don't know any better. Maybe more people are figuring that out now.
Ha, that's right on the mark. Bose makes products for the same people that Monster makes cables for.
Man, I so love these Great Depression pics that keep appearing..
When I read the title I secretly wished it said "cutting 10 percent on its prices". Don't get me wrong, I love their products (I have one of their headphones) and their customer service is great, too. But 180€ might be a bit too steep for headphones that don't have anything special really.
You have to wonder, how many of these companies are using the economy as an excuse to get rid of employees they have been wanting to get rid of but couldn't because of Union rules or what ever. Hmmmm
In what alternate reality did you come up with that one? Do you think that jobs magically appear out of thin air? No, a booming economy made them necessary.
Open up a history book. You'll find that massive layoffs usually happen in recessions. Usually it's because everyone feels poorer and cuts back.
But union leaders don't want you to know any of that, because then they can't turn you against your employer. I'm all for collective bargaining, but often it leads to corruption and mediocrity.
Well, I don't mind them charging overpriced crap if they can keep coming out with new technology to keep up with the growing tech market. The problem is, they are not. The most expensive system, Lifestyle 48, comes with this buggy and crappy external HDMI connector where if you have other devices, you'll have to get an HDMI switch and a optical switch to get the hi-def video and audio onto the TV. And 5.1 dolby and DTS is technology years ago. Any off the shelf home theater systems like Onkyo and Polk got 7.1 surround and at least 3 HDMI inputs behind it as a standard. Bose is so overrated and the service they've provided wasn't any better than other companies. I think it's time for them to cut down on marketing and get into some R&D for future product as well as improving current systems with better and more functional firmware.
Better Of Spending Elsewhere.
Yeah totally Bose is the Monster of stereos...
An angry mob of nerds... powerful. Pointless, but powe... well just pointless. Understand product design and create a multi million dollar company, then talk. Well that is once you stop trying to stuff your dcik into your usb port.
That's very true. A fraction of the buying public voicing their gripes, however true, on engadget isn't going to get the word out or impact Bose that much. Their marketing is that good. The average consumer going out shopping or buying online will buy because of the Bose name and their reputation from past succesful products.
Hard believe that a company making overpriced crap sounding accessories for the overpriced crap sounding iPod has to lay anyone off..
Thinking about Bose leads me to think about Monster cable. When are those people going out of business and laying off people. I mean in these times who's still buying these cables. I glanced at a 6 foot hdmi monster cable a couple of days ago and it was 99 dollars. Seriously, who pays 99 dollars for a 6ft hdmi cable? That would be one company I don't mind seeing fading away. Bose...atleast they got some decent stuff...not cheap but it's not as bad as some people make them out to be either. I mean I would buy it if it was somewhat cheaper.
Maybe they can focus that money more on creating good products that aren't overpriced?