Verge Article

🤣 your comments nailed it  

Spence:

”I’ve been using it since Christmas. Everybody at Sonos has been testing it for months. It has delivered — we know from data and from feedback — that it is easier to navigate. But it’s a change for customers. It is faster and more responsive, and it’s a better overall experience. ”

He’s living in an alternate reality 

I also found this bit at the end to be interesting:

Sonos approaches the all-important release of its Ace headphones and enters a huge new product category that could spur growth amid declining speaker and soundbar demand.

Are headphones - the large ones like Ace - a large enough market to compensate for lower sales of speakers/sound bars? And if the latter are seeing a demand constraint, will Ace be enough to grow overall sales, the all important metric for the street/analysts who seem to be driving Spence just now?

The overall headphone market is ~50% larger than wifi speaker market. And growing projected for several years. So there’s that.
 

If 1% of Sonos owners buy an Ace it will be ~70 mill in revenue. Sonos projects 100 mill in new revenue from Ace. It seems achievable to me. There’s a lot criticism of the functionality but the Sonos install base is pretty big and some will buy. 

Apple AirPods Max sales have increased a lot. 48% or something like that in 2023. Positive sign for Ace, maybe.  
 

Another big consideration for Sonos is people apparently replace their headphones often ~3years apparently. 

Is all this excluding the in ear/bud types?

People replace the large ones every 3 years?

 No including all types. Expensive headphones are selling though. 
 

From WSJ

In a survey earlier this year, Thill found that 62% of consumers said they buy a new set of headphones every three years, “suggesting a significantly faster refresh cycle compared to typical Sonos products.”

Disgusting

Why dont give us option to revert back?

Irresponsible n untrustworthy

Dont buy sonos

He's not lying - he's a CEO and Inhabits a different reality to the ordinary folk who buy his products in a search for enjoyment.

He'd act the same if he was flogging lead balloons.