Amazon Echo

Sonos is never on the frontline of innovation. Get used to it.

Sonos is never on the frontline of innovation.
Utter nonsense.

more than 200 patent filings

Disclaimer: I like my Sonos stuff. A lot.

Utter nonsense.

1. Patents are not equal to "innovation". Not at all.

2. Many Sonos patents are years, almost a decade old. Of course they patented their "main innovation" (at that time): multiroom wifi audio (and some stuff around that). Some other patents are for discontinued products, so the relevant number of patents is way smaller.

3. I wrote "never on the frontline of innovation", meaning they do not / want not to / cannot (re)act quickly when new developments come along. They might be cautious to what innovation takes off and what not as they don't want to "burn" man hours. And that is ok.
BUT: in our fast moving world, tech innovation keeps you in the news. News are good for sales. And existing customers expect adaption to new developments.

As far as Amazon Echo is concerned, I am rather pessimistic that it will really take off, therefore Sonos support might not be necessary. Other fields (e.g. wearables, IFTTT) are way more promising. Heck, even Alaska Airlines can do an Apple watch app in time. Why can't Sonos?

That is what I mean with "never on the frontline of innovation". Guests who are always late to a party won't be invited forever...

I don't even want to start talking about https://ask.sonos.com/sonos?topic_list%5Bsettings%5D%5Btype%5D=idea . 3199 ideas and 45 implemented (most of which are added services)? Why do they even have that page?

So I have 8 sonos speakers and love it but I have to tell you that I recently acquired an echo for my kitchen and placed it right next to play 5. I'm finding I use the echo more than the sonos as I don't have to locate my iPhone or iPad to select some music. All my iTunes library 3500 songs have been exported to Amazon music. All I have to do is so Alexa play, and she does. I was considering the sonos sound bar but I really think sonos is missing the boat here. They really have not innovated except for some new speakers but are missing the market on voice activation and a gal Friday type of interface. IMHO.

I have a Play:1 in the kitchen. All I have to do is press a button on top, and starts playing instantly. A very large playlist of quality music is always at the ready. One more tap, and it stops playing. What could be simpler than that?

I have a Play:1 in the kitchen. All I have to do is press a button on top, and starts playing instantly. A very large playlist of quality music is always at the ready. One more tap, and it stops playing. What could be simpler than that?

Playing exactly what you asked for?

My experience is the opposite of most here, I procured the Amazon Echo 1st. Yesterday I installed a Sonos Connect and hooked it into my current home audio system (wired and wireless). I now have control of the input from my tablet, a fabulous upgrade for me.

However I came to the forums to see if anyone had done a successful Echo/Sonos integration because I found myself wishing for voice command of my sonos play rather than reaching for a volume controller.

After using the Echo I get annoyed by anything that requires me to pick up a device to adjust volume or flip a switch ("Alexa turn off lights" is my favorite command before bed).

I don't have the chops to write an app but I sure hope someone does (Sonos?).

I think general control of Sonos is unlikely. To select music from our local network, it'd have to preload the metatdata to the cloud to match against. They'd be happy to have you upload your music to their cloud though. It's about lock-in to their services more than shopping. ("Alexa buy me a laptop!" isn't that useful.) As the younger generations move to cloud based music, it's important to capture them.

Then there are the many apps on Sonos that all have different UIs. The apps I've seen for Echo are mostly "pick a channel", not searching large databases unique to each user.

They might let it output something like Bluetooth or AirPlay someday. But the stream is going to start in their cloud.

Also, it gives them data to train voice recognition algorithms against. I read that that was a major benefit (perhaps the primary reason) for Google Voice.

Echo is very interesting and certainly integration with Sonos would make sense for many users. We at Netonos.com are very interested in voice recognition control and may look into this after we get Netonos Note released.

Maybe Sonos is considering such control as well. Roku has added it to their streaming device recently. It just has to work well or people will abandon it quickly.

Bob
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Amazon Echo now supports IFTTT.

Sonos?

+1 for IFTTT

I just got an Amazon Echo for Christmas and love it. It would be amazing if Sonos and Echo could link up. It would truly be a Star Trek home. In particular I would love to be anywhere in the house where Sonos speakers are located and be able to ask Alexa a question or play music or turn on or off the television using voice command. Most useful would be the ability to use any Sonos speaker as a speaker phone just like I do in my car.

I imagine since the cell phone is connected via wi-fi to the Sonos system this should not be a huge leap in technology. If it can be done easily in the car, why can't this easily be done in the home?

I am sure the Star Trek home will be coming in the near future and Sonos will be behind if they don't jump on this wave sooner than later.