Sonos, whatever you do, do not make headphones that come with a bra as a case.
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Sonos to Launch $400+ Headphones and Set-Top Box, Competing with Apple Devices
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If there is no W1 chip then what is the point for an AppLe user. May as well be a Sony or Bose. The experience is always the key feature and pairing between devices is very important. Apples sound and noise cancellation is equal to anything in the world. Great for someone who doesn’t have apple devices, sure
Unfortunately for them, there is a big portion of customers who will buy Airpods over anything else simply because it’s an apple product. Hard to compete with that… at the end of the day, the consumers don’t really care if you have a better product or offer better value.
Doing what, exactly? I'd like to know what types of use cases you have issue with as I've yet to run into any issues with using my 3 Sonos speakers. We are using the soundbar with a direct HDMI from the TV and 2 separate first gen Play 1s to play music through Sonos' app (with an occasional sync with the TV).
They might look vanilla but according to Car and Driver, the 1997 Camry was the best selling car that year. 🤷♂️
Personally when it comes to headphones I'll stick with my Airpods. they serve my Apple Ecosytem so well that I can't see a reason to move to something else. I also don't forsee a reason to move toward another set top box other than Apple TV... However I love my ARC and Beam and sub setups. It'll be interesting to see what they came up with. The STB is kinda unnecessary since most tv's come with the apps installed already
Agree with others when they say yes to headphones and no to set-top-box.
Sonos is very good at hardware, but not so great at software UIs. Exhibit one: the Sonos Controller apps on iOS, Windows and Macs are quite awkward to use and have barely received any UI improvements for many years.
Sonos is very good at hardware, but not so great at software UIs. Exhibit one: the Sonos Controller apps on iOS, Windows and Macs are quite awkward to use and have barely received any UI improvements for many years.
I am definitely seeing more people spend me wearing AirPods Max in public, which is an interesting observation for a 3-year old headphone.
Or maybe people’s definition of “better” needs to expand beyond what can be quantified on a spec sheet.
It's so funny to me how when the AirPods max came out people were like oh, it's a prized, no one's gonna buy this, it's too heavy, and more things like that. And I'm not saying it's not too heavy, although that is subjective, and I personally don't think it is too heavy. But I see them often now, I see them multiple times a week on the subway living here in Shanghai, I see them all the time on YouTube shorts, Instagram, reels, and TikTok, especially people wearing them in the gym, which personally I think is crazy because they're too heavy to stay on my head when I'm laying down flat on a bench. And yeah, now have a well-known audio company, possibly coming out with an expensive competing headphones. This is great, and I hope that Apple updates the AirPods Max soon. I would love one chip for better, Find My, hopefully USB-C as well.
Sonos wants into the Set Top Box/OTT Environment due to the explosion in FAST feeds/content. If they can launch their own channels (will need to acquire content - $$) or get high quality content on a rev share with large content partners; Sonos will profit off of the ad revenue.
The STB/OTT won't fail due to its monetization. The true challenge will be getting it in the hands of users - it's why Roku sticks are so cheap - all the money is made on these after the device is sold.
The STB/OTT won't fail due to its monetization. The true challenge will be getting it in the hands of users - it's why Roku sticks are so cheap - all the money is made on these after the device is sold.
There are only so many ways you can design a headphone that goes over or on your ears..
Could someone clarify the statement above? If I'm listening to music through headphones, why would I care if the sound is in sync with loudspeakers?
Ugh. I love my Sonos. I have about 30 Sonos devices (mostly Amps, Ports, Connect Amps, and Connects) and selfishly, I wish they'd just stay the same and not try to innovate. I don't need new features. I don't need things to change. I absolutely love that 99% of the time, they just work for streaming music from the various services that I subscribe to. I don't even play my own local music library much anymore. But I use Sonos every single day and I take for granted that it just works. I almost never have to tinker or restart a device or trouble shoot. I have a deep appreciation for the behind the scenes updates that they do to keep the various services running smooth. Aside from that, I can't think of anything that I need my Sonos to do that it doesn't already (maybe collaborate with the music services to have thumbs down for the various services and actually have it mean that it won't play that song anymore). A move like the one they are planning here makes me nervous that they will 1. spread their focus and diminish their core experience or new bugs will crop up 2. Fail and the company could languish or spiral financially.
Apple Vision Pro #latetotheparty
Do you see how it’s irrelevant if you make a compelling product?
Why Apple is going to dominate the vr/ar headset market with their $3500 headset /s
At that price range, they're not looking to compete with Roku, Vizio, or Amazon. Roku alone commands over 60% of U.S. marketshare for streaming media devices (SMD). At this late in the game, it doesn't make sense to me why Sonos wants to enter this market.
If you include smart TV's as well, it's dominated by Roku, Amazon, and Samsung.
Sonos sales are doing just fine.
Sonos annual revenue:
Fiscal Year 2015: $844 million
Fiscal Year 2016: $901 million
Fiscal Year 2017: $993 million
Fiscal Year 2018: $1,137 million
Fiscal Year 2019: $1,261 million
Fiscal Year 2020: $1,326 million
Fiscal Year 2021: $1,717 million
Fiscal Year 2022: $1,752 million
Fiscal Year 2023: $1,655 million
Sales are still growing year over year though fiscal year 2023 revenue did decline 5.5% vs fiscal year 2022
not completely ridiculous… but doesn’t sound like a large market, “anti-social people that throw parties so they can sit and critically listen to the same music they could without throwing a party.”
in other words, i think people are missing the obvious… Sonos doesn’t sell speakers they sell interconnectivity, and by definition headphones are solitary. Plenty of good headphones already on the market, if Sonos doesn’t bring something new to the table, and interconnectivity isn’t it, then I don’t see why people say this is a smart move.
