Amazon surpassed Sonos to become leader in Wi-Fi speaker sales ahead of Apple’s HomePod

Considering Amazon never releases sales figures, and one can hardly say the $49 Dot competes with the $199 Play:1 (and will soon be working in sympatico), these figures are pretty meaningless.

I agree; though it does show how Amazon has shaken things up in this market. But Sonos figured that out some time ago and immediately reacted to it. How effectively that reaction is will be known only once the Alexa integration 1.0 is released and how that is received.

Interesting times for sure. Sonos could ignore Bose/Denon and others, this is the first challenge that looks worthy with Echo Show in the pipeline. And obviously, the challenge contains the opportunity as well.

Wake up call? They partnered with Amazon to hopefully profit from the success of Amazon echo. Sounds like they woke up last year regarding. All those dots (of which I have 6 in my house) will sound a lot better when they play music via my sonos units.

First, this is from an Apple fan site and is written with the slant of promoting HomePod. The intention seems to be a knock on Sonos, suggesting that they can't even compete with Amazon, therefore the HomePod will do even better. Which doesn't make any sense.

As already pointed out, putting Amazon and Google into this category doesn't make much sense. No one is buying the products for the speaker quality, and neither Amazon or Google pretends that they are. Not sure on Google, but Amazon freely admits that the speakers suck by advertising that you can improve on them through by using bluetooth and audio out options. The selling points are the mic and AI assistant behind it all. They really need to be in a category all their own.

That said, what's revealing, assuming accuracy, is how far ahead Amazon is over Google. I figured they had a significant lead, but not that big. I also was not aware that Sonos was that far ahead of Bose, Harmon/JBL, and Denon. The lead is solid, but not solid enough if those competitors get good integration with an AI.

I'd say overall, that this data looks like Sonos is doing well and has the right strategy going forward.

The dot I think really inflates those numbers and really can't be considered a wifi speaker. But Denon and Google entries vs Sonos and Amazon haven't made a major dent yet. I like what I see with the Apple homepods. But being so Apple system locked always scares me away from going all out Apple.

Google certainly has more claim to being in the same category as Sonos because it does multi-room, but putting a non-synching, low audio quality AI assistant like the Dot in the same category as Sonos is stretching things. It's like saying the speaker on your phone is in the same category as a pair of Sennheiser headphones.

I can't see the Homepod being that useful for my situation, and not just because I'm already invested in Sonos. If you aren't interested in home theatre, want something that looks cool, want great sound but don't care about extensive home audio or flexibility for custom features...then Homepod makes sense. Of course, it also makes sense if you are absolutely sold on Apple.

I have the similar view on Chris when it comes to Apple. I was an iphone user for years, but got off when it felt like I was getting locked in with Apple everything, and when a competing phone had comparable features. That said, it seems like I'm getting locked in with Amazon and Sonos products now...and it doesn't seem to bother me too much. Perhaps that because if someone else comes out a with product in a new market I like, I'm confident that I'll be able to integrate it in...not so much when it comes to Apple.