Sonos partnering with Amazon a poor strategy?

Short of selling themselves to one of the three, what are the alternatives to what Sonos is trying?

I guess I really need to better learn to leverage Alexa (and Siri for that matter). I have 2 Dots in my house, and quite honestly think that they are the most overrated piece of technology I own.

On the flip side, Sonos is my most used piece of technology, my favorite purchase in at least 10 years. It is used every day, and works flawlessly over 7 zones. I control playback like some Neanderthal, using my laptop or iPhone. I know, I am weird.

I have previously posted on this community and in the thick of it last year in the beta forum, that Sonos choosing a rival as a partner was a pretty dumb choice.
http://www.businessinsider.com/apples-homepod-is-the-death-knell-for-sonos-2018-1
Perhaps, but not to choose voice assistant partner(s) would have been an even dumber strategic choice.
Why don't you check back in on this thread in 2-3 years, and we'll see how this is playing out?

I'm not sure it's poor but it is risky.

I think the problem Sonos have is that both Amazon and Google have taken a pretty big aim at what has probably become their biggest selling item, the Sonos Play:1. Initially that was not so bad as the Sonos speakers sounded better and you couldn't group the Amazon/Google alternatives. However in 2017 both added multi-room audio on speakers half the price of the cheapest Sonos.

Neither Amazon or Google advertise all the issues that their systems have, and instead rely on continual updates to improve the experience. The risk Sonos have embracing that philosophy is that one, they will always be behind the respective companies own products and two, the continual improvement method may alienate existing customers who are used to it just working.

The gamble is that by the time voice control of music becomes a must have, having been there early will give them an advantage over audio competitors and also gives them a me too product while it sorts itself out. They also have to hope that new customers don't buy once and never again while it's not working that brilliantly, as they won't understand how good Sonos can be. The Sonos plus Alexa experience is IMO a pale shadow of the normal Sonos standards thus far.

I don't care much about voice control,it is a fashion or not we will see.

There is plenty of functions here in the community since 3 years or more that should be implemented before this!
And Sonos is so slow in adding new functions to the system,even the most simple.

The advantage here with an independent speaker is that I can choose the software provider just like with music services.

I am not sure about the "choosing software provider" part. Sonos is as much of a walled garden on its operating software side as Apple products are, which is what the squeezebox type of fans are vocal about when talking about why they don't like Sonos. Or why hobbyists don't like Sonos - there is very little for them to tinker with. I find it an irony that many Sonos users don't like Apple - which is the source of this Sonos approach - because Apple hews to this philosophy. Sonos copies more than just design and packaging cues from Apple.

Neither Amazon or Google advertise all the issues that their systems have, and instead rely on continual updates to improve the experience. The risk Sonos have embracing that philosophy is that one, they will always be behind the respective companies own products and two, the continual improvement method may alienate existing customers who are used to it just working.

Agreed. But what other strategy is there for Sonos to adopt with Apple also added to this list now? IMO, their only recourse is the one they have adopted, but to execute it exceedingly well, which includes nimbly. I am not sure that this is being done as well as it needs to be though.

I am not sure about the "choosing software provider" part. Sonos is as much of a walled garden on its operating software side as Apple products are, which is what the squeezebox type of fans are vocal about when talking about why they don't like Sonos. Or why hobbyists don't like Sonos - there is very little for them to tinker with. I find it an irony that many Sonos users don't like Apple - which is the source of this Sonos approach - because Apple hews to this philosophy. Sonos copies more than just design and packaging cues from Apple.

I mean that Sonos is not sponsoring it's services like apple Google or Amazon.

It is an advantage for Sonos that I can choose (when it will be available) and they spend time and resources in integration and not development trying to follow the big companies.

The cons are that integration with many different services is not so easy at all to maintain.

Just I would like to see some more effort on adding functions to the system. Sonos updates are less frequent than Apple itself.

Agreed. But what other strategy is there for Sonos to adopt with Apple also added to this list now? IMO, their only recourse is the one they have adopted, but to execute it exceedingly well, which includes nimbly. I am not sure that this is being done as well as it needs to be though.I don't think they have much choice. Doing nothing gives Amazon/Google a free run on their now core business.

Where I personally think they've taken a poor decision is on trying to make it 100% cloud based. They should instead IMO try and build a local component somewhere in the Sonos ecosystem that the voice assistants can connect to and allow them to control everything Sonos can do via voice. That would keep them one step ahead of all three big players by providing support for music services the big three never will, and keeps to the Sonos ideal of all your music..

They should instead IMO try and build a local component somewhere in the Sonos ecosystem that the voice assistants can connect to and allow them to control everything Sonos can do via voice. That would keep them one step ahead of all three big players by providing support for music services the big three never will, and keeps to the Sonos ideal of all your music..

I am not sure that Amazon won't come out with some hardware to play locally stored music. The connect is very inexpensive and lets the user connect a traditional home phone into the Echo ecosystem. Amazon just might come out with a device that will feed music on a local hard drive into the Echo. 😉