CALIFORNIA: HP is now in partnership with Bang & Olufsen for its PC and tablet sound, dumping their long time partner Beats Audio. Since Apple’s acquisition of Beats Audio there wasn’t a doubt that they would be pulled from any kind of competitor, as Apple tends to keep its hardware proprietary. That left HP without the sound “label” on their products – a label HP feels sells computers and tablets.
HP will put the Bang & Olufsen brand on the high-end Spectre, Omen, Envy and some other commercial PCs. The B&O Play label will be on lower-cost Pavilion PCs and tablets. The companies will also resell audio Bang & Olufsen accessories for HP hardware. The first Bang & Olufsen branded PCs will appear this spring, HP said. The PCs will likely have a sticker attached or logo engraved on them to highlight the audio technology, similar to stickers for operating systems and processors widely found on laptops and desktops.
Audio quality is certainly a consideration for many when buying a PC or tablet and with names like Bang & Olufsen and Beats Audio that’s sure to grab some of those eyes. In all honesty, HP might make out better with Bang & Olufsen than they did with Beats Audio. B&O has been making quality audio products for years and it can be argued that they’re even better than Beats.
