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Windows 10 Controller


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Do you have plans to ship a Windows 10 Store app which can be used from multiple Windows devices (PC, Phone, Xbox) to control the Sonos experience?

We are a Windows household and the desktop controller that exists for PC today is heavy and not very touch friendly. The third party Windows Phone app, Phonos, is fills a void, but not nearly as feature rich as the Android or iOS app. This has been requested for several years (https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/support-windows-8-rt-for-surface-tablet-and-windows-phone-8-for-mobile-devices-4593709) and the product management team does not address this gap beyond a blanket we have no news statement. I understand that choices have to be made. If you do not plan to address this in the net 12 months then can you at least make your API public with your apps being first and best examples of how to use that API so others can fill the gap for you?

Instead of a lot of "+1" and "me too" threads please show your support by voting on the poll below so we can get a count of the number of people who are interested in a Windows 10 app.
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Best answer by Kenneth R 15 April 2016, 19:05

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Would you use a Windows 10 Sonos controller app?


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There have been many requests for a Windows Metro controller. There is a very long thread here on the subject.

Everyone was expecting a Windows10 controller around the launch (there were some screenshots of developer version). I guess still expected although Sonos won't confirm. I believe there are several 3rd party ones.
28 Votes? Sonos is not going to write an app for 28 votes. Come on people if you really want the app then you have to do something about it.
VOTE!!!!
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Windows Mobile has a market share of 2-3 %, according to http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp . It is not very economical to create a Sonos client for such a small minority. As Windows Mobile user, you should be aware of that and should have been aware before you purchased such a device.

Improving the Android and iOS client will reach way more people than a Windows client.

On your desktop you can use the desktop controller. Touchscreen Windows devices are still a minority as well, albeit possibly rising in number.

Maybe the whole situation will change with Windows 10, I would not yet count on it.

28 Votes? Sonos is not going to write an app for 28 votes. Come on people if you really want the app then you have to do something about it.
VOTE!!!!


Oh! Seems you found all the 28 people using Windows mobile! Congrats! 😉
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Market share has already surpassed Mac OS users actually (I also have a Mac in addition to multiple Windows 10 devices). It has also surpassed Vista and Windows 8 users as well I believe.
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That market share numbers may be the case for Windows 10 on the desktop (most of them without touch screen). And for those there is a quite acceptable desktop client (and has always been).
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Windows Mobile has a market share of 2-3 %, according to http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp . It is not very economical to create a Sonos client for such a small minority. As Windows Mobile user, you should be aware of that and should have been aware before you purchased such a device.
Always these market share discussions. These are statistics. Nothing more. Are they really relevant for Sonos?
First of all your statistics show only the worldwide average. In Europe for example you can find a market share above 10% for windows phones:
http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/smartphone-os-market-share/

Second. The potential clients for Sonos. The high market share of Android phones is mainly due to low budget phones. I think we can say that the potential Sonos clients would invest in a high-end or at least mid-range phone.
Just a calculation example with stats from the play store. Comparing one of most used apps (whatsapp) against the Sonos app.
Whatsapp: 1-5 billion downloads
Sonos: 1-5 million downloads
Assuming that all android users use whatsapp (which is surely not the case), results in 0.1 % sonos customers over all Android users.
As no download stats are available from the appstore i cannot do the same comparison, but i guess the sonos customers % over all ios users is higher.
Market share stats might be interesting, but they do not mean much for a specific app.

Sonos wants to sell a product. And if they do only offer to control it via an app, it is up to them to assure that every potential customer is able to use their products. You cannot expect, that the customer is adapting to fit into Sonos requirements. This is not customer friendly. This would be different if they would still offer the Sonos control. But they don't.
The 2000 votes from the former ask sonos topic for a windows phone app show already that there was a big interest in this app. It was the most requested feature since 3 years, followed by the request for an windows 8 app.

Anyhow we've seen that they had an app in pipeline for windows phone 8.1. But for whatever reason it has not been released.

The constant ignoring of this topic from sonos side shows only one thing. They give a sh** on their customers.

In this context i would like to quote from the Sonos website:
At Sonos we're committed to providing a ridiculously high level of service to all of our customers [...]


I do not want to know what it would look like if they would invest less in their customers...
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It is about time that a universal app is developed. It is time to drop the old windows app and move across. As the original post stated write once and run in multiple places. This would even give the 10 ft UI other threads have asked for.
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Well said Leo. It can be difficult to move this conversation beyond that maddeningly misleading 2-3% figure. The shear volume of low-end Androids distorts all the figures in the smartphone space. Some of the Android phones I've seen sent to clueless relatives and friends could barely be considered "smart" at all and that's in the UK. I dread to think of what's being pushed on people in their hundreds of millions in the developing world. The truth is that probably 90% of the Android market does not, and for the conceivable future will not, overlap Sonos' market. Fair enough WP is still small but many of it's strongest markets are well developed rich ones much as Sonos' are so the risk/reward in developing a WP app is a far more nuanced question than worldwide market share stats.
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Believe what you want, as long as you do not show facts, nothing is proven.

So your whole argument is around the assumption, that WP overlaps with the Sonos market - maybe even more than the Android market?

I don't believe so.

Did you have a look into Microsoft's own mobile phone store? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/phones/all/

Given the Lumia series is the better one and the Asha series (not even on sale in the US) the one for other countries, I can hardly find a "top notch Windows mobile" phone. (As there are almost no other serious companies selling WP, the MS store is enough for a comparison) The most expensive devices are 389$, hardly flagship contenders. If you think that Sonos buyers are "rich" (which is no necessarily true), they clearly might get better phones than that (e.g. iPhone, Samsung S6 Edge, etc.), which cost considerably more.

As MS seems to not want (or not be able) to fight the "flagship fight" on US / European / Asian markets it seems to target emerging countries more - with Asha amongst others.

The market share numbers again really tell the story: India (a favorable market for Nokia) had a market share of 11% (2014, http://www.medianama.com/2014/12/223-indian-smartphone-shipments-q3-2014-idc/ ) for Nokia, which does not sound too bad. BUT: all those 11% (more or less) were cheap feature phones. As you can see, MS/Nokia is not even amongst the five top smartphone manufacturers in that country.

So no: Windows Phone is not at all overlapping with the Sonos market. If one OS needed to be picked, I would think iOS is the OS with the most overlap. And if - in addition to it's teeny tiny market share - the overlap is that small, no support for WP can be understood all the better.
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Maybe the whole situation will change with Windows 10, I would not yet count on it.


It would make perfect sense for Sonos to make an Universal App for Windows. They could reach Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows Phone and Xbox with a single app.
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I'm actually very surprised we haven't seen one yet. There were some screen shots by others showing a version in development (showing as an app for developers in the Windows App store). I expected we would see something with the Windows10 release. However, they have also been right in the middle of some other big projects so maybe they don't want to release it until we get our the next full version released (just like we don't get public ios betas either).

Fingers crossed with next full release we see Windows universal app (I have never seen one personally though)
Totally agree. This suite of apps for Windows is way overdue now.
With the launch of continuum for Windows + the ability to port android & iOS code to Windows 10 + Microsoft actively writing code (in house) for companies to show them the new features of Windows, this should be a no brainer for them.
As for the market share argument Windows may have a small % SOM in Mobile, however as PCs, Tablets & Mobiles reach parity in terms of power, these numbers will become irrelevant and hopefully so to will the hurtles of porting each app for each platform.
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However, they have also been right in the middle of some other big projects so maybe they don't want to release it until we get our the next full version released

do tell us more Chris 😉
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speculation 😉
Install the android/blackberry version on wp10... They have had the phish alpha app in the windows store for years but wont give permission for ms to release it, since it was developed by ms.
This will be my standard going forward, if these companies refuse to support wp then just download and install the android version...
I tried the Android version on Windows Mobile 10... but I don't get any further than the splash screen 😞
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Amazing that the most installed OS in the world (see Gartner) has little support from vendors like Sonos, anything but windows mentality, ignoring the fact that it's used by millions and with Windows 10 and the unified app you'd think they'd cotton on that this is the future. Get a shift on Sonos and get an app out!
Amazing that the most installed OS in the world (see Gartner) has little support from vendors like Sonos, anything but windows mentality,

There has been a Sonos Windows application for years, which still works perfectly on Windows 10. In many ways, is far superior to the other Sonos apps as Sonos haven't wrecked it - yet.

If you mean apps that would work on a phone, then AFAIA Windows phones only have a very small market share...
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I think Thunderbyte you are missing the point made by the original poster. He was referring to a Windows 10 app. This would then be available to desktop, tablet, Xbox and mobile. It would be the same app for each as, with the exception of XBOX, they run the same operating system. Xbox uses HYPER-V which is part of their Server technology so presumably they have virtualised the environment. In fact soon users will be able to stream content including games to windows 10 machines from an XBOX. This is an interesting point as the hardware on phones has caught up recently meaning that users running windows 10 on their phone will be able to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor and use it as a desktop PC. So any discussion should be related to the OS as the lines are now becoming a little blurred, especially with Continuum allowing users to continue where they left off on any device running windows 10.

Of course win10 mobile has not yet been released but whether it is successful or not is probably down to Samsung...
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I think Thunderbyte you are missing the point made by the original poster. He was referring to a Windows 10 app. This would then be available to desktop, tablet, Xbox and mobile.

Nope, not missing the point. Sonos already works on Windows 10 desktops and tablets. No idea why you would want a Sonos Controller on an XBOX? That would be superweird - controlling it with a game pad maybe? Why would you want that, if you have your mobile phone/tablet on your side? And Windows 10 mobile has really NO market share (as shown above).

Of course win10 mobile has not yet been released but whether it is successful or not is probably down to Samsung...


Nope. Too little too late in my opinion. The shares are distributed and Apple and Google will keep on innovating. It is not Samsung holding the rudder in the hand, it is Google.
The figures you quote are either US or global, if you look at Europe you have windows phone at 10-15% in some countries, in emerging markets the same. The investment in an app is small compared to potential sales loss of 15%. Regardless of phone the windows 10 rev platform is now universal apps, delivery is moving to the store. If your product isn't there you'll start to miss out (akin to not bothering with advertising)
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For context Office 97 also works on Windows 10.

Yes Xbox One users can use a remote, app or the controller. It already runs a Blu-ray, has many steaming apps such as Netflix, Wuaki, Amazon Instant, Now TV, also live TV as well as Plex which is an excellent media server. My little boy certainly struggles to play music as he does not have a phone, but he does have a sonos sound bar.

I would like a Samsung Smart TV app as well...

You are right Windows 10 Mobile has no market share. Probably because it has not been released yet. JAY_17 is certainly right why would a company not want their software listed with the biggest software company in the world?

I personally would like to be able to control Sonos through Plex. Sonos for all of their good points are, in my opinion, not the best or fastest developers.
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Interesting:

http://blog.sonos.com/news/get-your-groove-on-sonos/
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@Jay: Yes, indeed. There are more Windows phone users in Europe (and maybe other countries). I however don't get how you translate a 15% market share to a 15% sales loss. I would not see that as black and white. If a Windows phone user wants to use Sonos, there are 3rd party apps available and there is also the possibility to get a 30$ Android phone/tablet as remote. Being a Windows phone user means having the need for workarounds like that. Sonos is not an exception, just look at other important apps and their non-existence on the Windows platform.

Maybe that will change, maybe it will not.

TV / gaming consoles: I don't think that these devices are good Sonos controllers at all, just imagine how difficult the simplest steps would be without a mouse or a touch screen. Even if you are sitting in front of your TV, it makes more sense to use a touch device to control sonos than fiddling around with a game controller.
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--- it makes more sense to use a touch device to control sonos than fiddling around with a game controller.

Yes Thunderbyte you are quite right a windows 10 app for touch devices would be perfect.