Patiently waiting for Alexa Integration

I would have this is a reasonable assumption as well
Time to get myself one Dot then; it isn't as if that will be a big financial outlay at risk.

Bear in mind that Alexa is linked to your amazon account. For example, a UK dot linked to a UK amazon account only has access to UK skills.

We don't know how Sonos-Amazon will/have addressed this issue - for example searching for music tracks, etc. in a skill is currently dependent on an intents library which doesn't exist for UK/DE echos, but only for US registered devices.

Maybe the Sonos-Alexa integration will by-pass this restriction?

I would have this is a reasonable assumption as well
Time to get myself one Dot then; it isn't as if that will be a big financial outlay at risk.

I bought one last year with the £10 Prime discount when it launched in the UK. I barely used it. But the reason I bought it was I thought it would be fun to use with Sonos as my Sonos is with me everywhere in the house (well, not the bathroom, yet!).
It's not something I need though. Sonos is easy enough for me to navigate and control without having to be concerned about voice control. But maybe I'll think differently once I'm up and running!

We don't know how Sonos-Amazon will/have addressed this issue - for example searching for music tracks, etc. in a skill is currently dependent on an intents library which doesn't exist for UK/DE echos, but only for US registered devices.

Maybe the Sonos-Alexa integration will by-pass this restriction?
My logic, admittedly not based on full appreciation of the subject, says that integration should allow anything that Sonos does anywhere in the world to be also done via Dot to the same extent everywhere. For instance, voice command to playing music from a NAS.
The saving grace is that getting one prematurely may have one left with a paperweight for a while that isn't too expensive - only because I can't pick one up where I live just when it is ready to work. I certainly see no need to pick up more than one Dot in this manner.

If you don't need a dot (or full echo, or show), then that would imply a new Sonos device with Alexa/mics built in. The only way I see that happening is if Amazon feels that Apple Homepod is a real threat, and they believe customers won't see a dot paired with a PLAY:3 as a legitimate equivalent. So perhaps Amazon works with Sonos, maybe even provides funding, to get that product out the door by Christmas.

Although, assuming it's still a real concern for Amazon, they could also invest in a marketing campaign to convince customers that Sonos+Dot is as good as Homepod (or better). That would avoid the need to rush a new product to market. As well, Sonos has said they want to eventually work with Google Home, Homepod, and whoever else, not just Amazon. So why build a product that only works with Amazon? Why not wait and come out with a product that has the mics and capability to work with the voice assistant of your choice? Then again, maybe Amazon and others won't license to a product that works with all three...don't know yet.

Regardless of the speculation above, Sonos has said that it will work with existing Sonos products, so I think you can safely concluded that you'll only need to get a dot once it's available.

Bruce, thanks for the message about Dot procurement, which I can only reply to here based on how you have set up messaging at your end!
Hopefully I should not need to take you up on the very kind offer; Amazon now has a large online retail presence in India and going by the Kindle experience, should be selling all devices online in India as soon as they launch the Echo in India.

I bought all my Sonos kit from Amazon US whose policy on India shipments of the kit is a on again/off again kind of thing. But for all my purchases I was very impressed with all the logistics including how fast it cleared Indian customs. Time taken from order click to home delivery in India from US warehouses was usually just 10 calendar days. Total cost including shipping for even items like the Sub was just 1.3 times the Amazon US prices, which was very reasonable considering the 25% Indian customs charge.

But, thanks again.

Gah. Yea, I turned off PMs because I was getting random stuff all the time. Thought that if I initiated the process, a reply would come through. I'll have to give some more thought to that. My apologies.

Glad to hear that things are getting better. The equipment we shipped to our office in Bengaluru was used, and not from a "manufacturer" facility, so I suspect it got a tad more scrutiny, and sometimes I would just bring it over myself in my luggage. But I certainly had less trouble shipping there than I did to the office I worked with in Bangkok. Those Thai customs folks were persnickety :)

A pleasure, sir.

Anyone interested in the Amazon Show? It looks like it might be a good candidate for a Sonos controller that does voice and screen control of a Sonos setup.

Anyone interested in the Amazon Show? It looks like it might be a good candidate for a Sonos controller that does voice and screen control of a Sonos setup.

That would be a nice use case... I hope if you use the Show to play from Amazon music through a Sonos speaker that you can see the lyrics on the Show's screen the way you can when playing music directly through the Show itself.

Also interested in using the Show to play from YouTube but I doubt if it will be able to share that feature with Sonos.

I hope if you use the Show to play from Amazon music through a Sonos speaker that you can see the lyrics on the Show's screen the way you can when playing music directly through the Show itself.

When playing music from Apple, it would be nice to not have to first find the phone and then invoke the app to know what is playing. But the neat trick will be for music to be seen when Alexa has ordered Sonos to play either Apple Music or other services, or from the NAS.

First step is to see what the Show can do on its own with the improved speakers and built-in display... those answers are just a few hours away now.