Attended a MPO lunch held at Happy Valley Jockey club this afternoon and during a conversation with one of the marketing officers, after i told her my dissappointment with the new business class, she said that they would be implementing some changes including a change which would enable the central partition to fold/slide down so that people travelling together could actually communicate if they wish. Does anyone know more or is this merely something on CX's "to do list" and may only get implemented when they decide it's time to introduce the next 'new' business class?

Virgin added this on their 747s, so it's not something that necessarily requires them to wait for the next version of the product.

You mean like BA already has

BA seat is a totally different product as seats go by pair. I find it far better than the new CX seat, and wonderful for couples travelling together as you even face each other. But there is a big difference if you can get the upper deck (F class feel) or are stuck in the crowded main deck.
Regarding VS, I believe that they transformed the 747 middle seat after they were already installed (at least on some planes). I might be wrong, but I do not think that it would be a major transformation to designate some adjacent seats for couple (say 6 of them) and change the partition for those. But that wont be a great couple seat anyway given the fishbone design where one pax will sit kind-of-infront of the other. On VS 747, there are six true pair-seats (middle seats).

Slightly OT but CX are advertsiing on TV showing the new biz class, the one with guy being tucked into bed !!! then the final shot is a 777 cruising off into the sunset, I thought they only had the new config on 747's and they keep plugging in seat power which is still not working

ALL 777-300ERs (77A) have the new F/C seats. @:-)

I was trying to visualize this the other day on my 77A flight in J, and I just couldn't. I specifically remembered your post and was trying to reconcile it with what I saw on the plane.

Say you're in 20D for an example purpose. The TV is enormous, and then next to the TV is the handset. The problem is this - the head of the person in 19D is right around where your handset is. The only logical place I could see to make the central portion recline would be behind the handset (in your seat, 20D), but then the only way to communicate with the person in 19D would be if the person in 19D is completely reclined. Otherwise you'll be talking to the back of their chair. Even when they lay down, there is such a slant to the 77A seats that you won't be on the same level. My main assumption here is that they can't move the TVs.

Assuming the TV can't be moved, the other option would be to make the front part of the divider between 20D and 19D go down, at the back of your TV (from the perspective of the person in 20D), but the issue there is while it is very convenient for the person in 19D to talk, he will have to hang his head around and look back left to communicate with the person in 20D, because the person in 20D is so much farther recessed.

Does this make sense to anyone?

Nope.

Seriously, the way it works on Virgin is that the divider between the center "pairs" of seats can be removed. So, for example, 19D and 19G on a CX 773ER. You can sort of see how it might work in this photo.

Here is some more information direct from VS's website.

Agreed. IMO BA's seat is the best out there after SQ's new for all business class seats I have been on.

Fully agreed. Though one advantage of BA seat is that you can move it from seat to bed at will, while that is more difficult for SQ seat.

I always wondered if CX did any testing of these new business class, since from my very first flight on one, it seemed pretty obvious what the negatives were.

Looks like they probably got the same people who tested and approved the previously hyped new "regional business class" to test this new fully flat business class. Certainly similarities in the poor color scheme/cloth/TV/build quality/ergonomics.

I'm not sure about the new business class, but I and several others were paid a significant amount of money (several thousand HK$) to spend a day at Cathay City testing an early prototype of the new First. I gave a large amount of very detailed feedback. Not one iota of it was reflected in the final product.

At the end of the day, airline executives will do and implement what they think is right not what is the customers like and desire.

I think these feed back sessions are always waste of time. However, in your case it was not waste of money

An upper deck window seat on BA 744 IMHO is even better than SQ's new business class.
Very private, easy bed-seat conversion, spacious. ^

I agree having flown 60 000 miles in such seats in the last two months