I understand what you are saying but I feel you are missing a few points:
- Your first comment referenced the demise of Sonos if they didn't address specific minor complaints from customers not the ability of other organisations to compete with Sonos, hence my comment about Google Assistant;
- I agree that if Amazon decided to target the high end multi room audio market their R&D budget would be much bigger than Sonos could respond to but the strategy of Sonos is to move their product line to include multiple AI's from Amazon & Google and maybe Microsoft - something that I suspect that any of those three organisations would be unable to achieve (hence a good defence against this approach);
- At present, Amazon's strategy appears to be about market saturation with Alexa, and at this time selling hardware at cost, so that it is the 'go to' voice control solution. I see no logic in them focusing upon a (from a Amazon perspective) niche market that Sonos currently occupy;
- A lot of the issues that people are complaining about on the forums are because Amazon don't allow 3rd parties, like Sonos, to provide that functionality, indeed not even all of the Amazon product line offers 100% of the Aleza device functionality.
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Having fun playing with the new "Announce" feature on my Echo speakers and was wondering if it works on Sonos One speakers as well. Anybody with a Sonos One tried it to see?
No. The speaker will reply "Sorry, you can't send announcement from this device yet."
Hi, does anyone know if Sonos are working on making the Alexa announce feature work with Sonos One as making an announcement across your speakers would be very handy even if it’s just to tell the kids “dinner is ready!”. I have Sonos One in all rooms apart from Lounge which has a Playbase and an Echo Dot. When I tried to make an announcement via a Sonos One it says “sorry you can’t make announcements from this device yet”, so I thought maybe the Sonos Ones would at least receive announcements if I made the announcement via the Echo Dot but sadly no that just says “none of your other devices can receive announcements” ?
As this feature is not available across all of the Amazon range of devices, only Alexa devices and not Alexa Enabled, I suspect that Amazon are not allowing the functionality to include the Sonos One.
Not quite the same, but If you have an iphone, want an intercom feature and don't mind spending £4.99 there's always this:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/intercom-for-sonos/id1090988947?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/intercom-for-sonos/id1090988947?mt=8
I have Voice Intercom for Sonos, works with my iPhone. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voice-intercom-for-sonos/id689673100?mt=8 only $1.99
As the whole point of having a sonos one is to combine the benefits of sonos and alexa, this kind of missing functionality is yet another reason to start moving toward amazon for whole room audio and ditching sonos. How many months and still the most complained about feature of the wake noise goes unchanged... sonos are dead inside 12 months if they dont start addressing issues that customers are complaining about.
That made me laugh, thanks for brighening up my day!!!! :)
On a more serious note, this issue will almost definitely require development work from both Sonos and Amazon, along with an amount of testing. I have no doubt that Sonos are developing new functionality and that this issue and a change to the wake word be included within their requirements prioritisation but suspect that Google Assistance integration will pip these to the post!
Im sure many people thought it funny when folkbthouggtbamazon would run them out of town too. Until they were run out.
Look where amazon are taking the alexa product and their music services.
One of the reasons sainsburys and asda are looking to merge is to try and stave off attack from amazon. When Amazon get their delivery right, and can perfect same day delivery or collection then aside from perishable goods, supermarkets will be hammered by amazon.
Even if sonos realises its maximum hope for an ipo valuation of 3Bn (ambitious at best), that would still be pocket change to jeff bezos personal worth of 130Bn+.
If sonos doesnt start fixing issues quickly, then amazon could very easily decide to push their own speakers at prices undercutting sonos and it would very quickly spell the end for sonos.
Look where amazon are taking the alexa product and their music services.
One of the reasons sainsburys and asda are looking to merge is to try and stave off attack from amazon. When Amazon get their delivery right, and can perfect same day delivery or collection then aside from perishable goods, supermarkets will be hammered by amazon.
Even if sonos realises its maximum hope for an ipo valuation of 3Bn (ambitious at best), that would still be pocket change to jeff bezos personal worth of 130Bn+.
If sonos doesnt start fixing issues quickly, then amazon could very easily decide to push their own speakers at prices undercutting sonos and it would very quickly spell the end for sonos.
Look where amazon are taking the alexa product and their music services.
One of the reasons sainsburys and asda are looking to merge is to try and stave off attack from amazon. When Amazon get their delivery right, and can perfect same day delivery or collection then aside from perishable goods, supermarkets will be hammered by amazon.
Even if sonos realises its maximum hope for an ipo valuation of 3Bn (ambitious at best), that would still be pocket change to jeff bezos personal worth of 130Bn+.
If sonos doesnt start fixing issues quickly, then amazon could very easily decide to push their own speakers at prices undercutting sonos and it would very quickly spell the end for sonos.
Amazon does not have a solution to play local library tracks to grouped speakers (Bluetooth and the Mymedia skill only work with single Echo speakers). Until Amazon addresses that I don't think they are much of a threat to Sonos.
If sonos doesnt start fixing issues quickly, then amazon could very easily decide to push their own speakers at prices undercutting sonos and it would very quickly spell the end for sonos.
Amazon's speakers are already cheaper than Sonos. The reason people buy Sonos is because they are higher quality, do whole house speakers better, and can be bonded with other speakers for stereo and home theatre sound. Sure Amazon could up it's game and start making better speakers with similar features to Sonos. However, they have to be careful not to infringe on Sonos patents. It also doesn't appear to be anywhere near Amazon's plans to push Sonos out of the market, since they license their Alexa tech to Sonos and even selling the Sonos One at their mall stores.
Looking at it a different way, if Sonos days were really as numbered as you state, if the lack of Alexa features was as big of a problem as you state (and they can't do much about it), why would they be looking to add Google, have an IPO, and create new products? Instead, why wouldn't they be looking to sell? They have valuable patents and a strong customer base.
Not sure if patents, stereo bonding, or sound quality are an issue since they can all be addressed by using the line out from a Dot or Spot into powered speakers or an amplifier. Sonos will not be hurt by a competitor trying to imitate their wireless speaker model but rather by one with a new approach that replaces it. I just don't think that replacement can be solely based on streaming music because there is a brick wall point among consumers where you can't expand any more without including music collectors and accommodating the playback of music not accessible through those streaming music services. Sonos still let's you play your personal tracks to multi-room groups (even if this is not their primary focus) while Amazon cannot do this. This prevents anyone from cobbling together a simple Amazon replacement for Sonos.
I get what you're saying, but I don't think it's really an equivalent setup. Instead of getting 4 sonos zones (3 with stereo pair, and one HT), for example, you'd have to get 4 dots, the sets of powered speakers, and a wireless HT setup. That route just doesn't feel right and I don't see people heading that direction because of some features missed in the Sonos One.
Sonos will not be hurt by a competitor trying to imitate their wireless speaker model but rather by one with a new approach that replaces it. I just don't think that replacement can be solely based on streaming music because there is a brick wall point among consumers where you can't expand any more without including music collectors and accommodating the playback of music not accessible through those streaming music services. Sonos still let's you play your personal tracks to multi-room groups (even if this is not their primary focus) while Amazon cannot do this. This prevents anyone from cobbling together a simple Amazon replacement for Sonos.
In this age, I don't think the percentage of customers who depend on personal libraries is all the large. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
I would say that the biggest threat to Sonos is the marketing potential of other brands, particularly Amazon, Google, and Apple. By that I mean that a lot of counsumers may not even consider Sonos a viable option because of name recognition, despite quality and functionality of the actual product. Then there are the customers who don't care, or don't recognize the differences in quality. But these aren't new challenges for Sonos. It's always been that way, and Sonos has done well steadily reaching it's target market.
A few years back, Sonos stated that 93% of all streaming is from the internet, not local files. I imagine it is more than that by now.
Also, once the Sonos One (And others players!) are AI agnostic, something I don't think Amazon or Google would allow to each other, this is another defence against a push by Amazon to compete head on with Sonos.
All good points but I don't think personal libraries will ever drop to zero because there are too many songs and versions of songs that are not available from any music service and an even larger number that can't be covered by any single service alone. Local collections will still exist for folks who want to hear those otherwise unavailable tracks and as long as Sonos provides a mechanism for playing local libraries and Amazon does not then Sonos will have an advantage. This affects not just people who listen to local tracks today but also folks who think they might want to at some point in the future and aren't comfortable throwing away that option.
Replicating other Sonos features might not be as neat and tidy right now but most can be done to some extent with Echos. That said I really doubt that Amazon is looking to actually compete with Sonos, especially after the Homepod failure. Customers using Alexa via Sonos Ones serves their larger purpose just as well as customers using Alexa via Echos.
Replicating other Sonos features might not be as neat and tidy right now but most can be done to some extent with Echos. That said I really doubt that Amazon is looking to actually compete with Sonos, especially after the Homepod failure. Customers using Alexa via Sonos Ones serves their larger purpose just as well as customers using Alexa via Echos.
It doesn't need to be zero. If the local libraries feature doesn't is significant to enough to move the needle on sales, then it's not a feature that makes a difference. Sort of like the need for a dedicated handheld hard-button controller doesn't move the needle enough. Not the same, since we are talking about hardware and software, but similar.
Replicating other Sonos features might not be as neat and tidy right now but most can be done to some extent with Echos.
I suppose it's a matter of opinion on the value of certain features, but to me, Echos are not close to replace Sonos.
That said I really doubt that Amazon is looking to actually compete with Sonos, especially after the Homepod failure.
Was it a failure. I have researched numbers or anything, but I thought it was selling ok. Not on par with Google or Amazon, but not dead either. Besides, I keep hearing headlines that Apple in general is killing it.
But I agree that Amazon doesn't have a lot of motivation to compete with Sonos. If they wanted to, I think they would be much better off buying Sonos than trying to keep with them. That way they don't have to 'reinvent the wheel' and would be able to utilize the Sonos brand and all that comes with it. I don't think they'll buy though either.
If it's any indication Google isn't wanting to enter the higher end audio area either, since they just announced a JBL soundbar with Google built in.
Now Sonos have added Alexa Announcements my family love using it - maybe a little too much ? my daughter’s have full conversations using it when one is upstairs and the other is downstairs ?♂️
Not wishing to make your life too much of a misery, but maybe show your daughters they can say/do the following (just as examples) ...and also note the way to make an even longer 40 second announcement. (That’s if they didn’t know about that feature already)..!! ..
Sonos Announcements
Alexa, announce that dinner is ready.
Alexa, broadcast the midnight dance party is beginning.
Alexa, tell everyone that the car is leaving in 5 minutes.
Please note that announcements are limited to 10 seconds. However, saying "Alexa, I want to make an announcement" increases the time to 40 seconds.
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