Danish Luxury

Discontinued. Introduced in 1998; no longer made.

Audio Telephones Bang & Olufsen

BeoCom 6000

A cordless telephone by Bang & Olufsen with a scroll wheel, first made in 1998.

Designed by
Henrik Sørig Thomsen
First made
1998

Visit bang-olufsen.com

BeoCom 6000 handset in its table charger
BeoCom 6000 handset in its table charger

Pictures © Bang & Olufsen, from bang-olufsen.com.

Why it is renowned

Bang & Olufsen counts the BeoCom 6000 among the products of its own history, for its curved profile and the wheel that scrolled through lists of recently dialled and stored numbers.1 In 2013 Fast Company reported, from a source close to the project, that a Bang & Olufsen home phone with a scroll wheel gave Apple the idea for the wheel navigation of the first iPod.2 The magazine tied this to the BeoCom 6000, which B&O had given a navigation wheel at about that time.2

The story

Henrik Sørig Thomsen designed the BeoCom 6000, and Bang & Olufsen dates it to 1998.1 Its wheel was echoed by sound: Thomsen told Fast Company the team wanted the sound to give the wheel a tactile feel, and after trying various materials the engineers chose to play it through the handset's loudspeaker.2 The phone came with a charger base for a table or a wall.1 It was made in two versions, MKI and MKII.3 An identical-looking model, the BeoCom 1, was sold in the United States, while the BeoCom 6000 used the DECT standard in other markets.4 It is no longer made, and Bang & Olufsen tells it as part of its past.1

Sources
  1. Years of Magic - A History of B&O products. bang-olufsen.com, read 7 October 2026.
  2. Apple's Inspiration For The iPod? Bang & Olufsen, Not Braun, Fast Company. fastcompany.com, read 7 October 2026.
  3. Beocom 6000, Bang & Olufsen Support. support.bang-olufsen.com, read 7 October 2026.
  4. BeoCom, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 7 October 2026.

Last checked 7 October 2026, against the maker's own pages.