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Sonos CEO steps down

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
January 11, 2017
17 replies
1598 views

John MacFarlane, CEO and co-founder of smart speaker company Sonos is stepping down after 15 years of leading the company.

The Sonos blog has his full statement Statement.

What does this mean for the company future, does it signify serious issues or is it the company taking a new direction and needing a fresh outlook? Time will tell but given the redundancies of last year, the delay to Alexa integration, and recent debarcles with Spam on this forum, the signs are not good. Alternativley recent moves, openinh up the API for example, could show the company moving to a more open set up that differs from the values one of the Founders had.

Let's hope the company pulls through and prospers.

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chicks

"I think you'll see us executing faster in terms of where we are and working together. " 🙂

K

Kumar

Good interview. He is ex Blackberry, and there may be uncomfortable parallels between BlackBerry in about 2010, Sonos today and the Smart phone revolution that torpedoed BB.

So will it be a case of Lessons learnt or History repeating itself? Only time will tell.

Insertusernamehere

Good interview. He is ex Blackberry, and there may be uncomfortable parallels between BlackBerry in about 2010, Sonos today and the Smart phone revolution that torpedoed BB.

So will it be a case of Lessons learnt or History repeating itself? Only time will tell.

LOL i was going to mention Blackberry but he wasnt the CEO and seems to have accomplished a lot there and at Sonos, but totally valid point. I thought he really nailed the interview, Im excited to see what happens.

K

Kumar

Yes; just voice and streaming services seemed limited in scope of ambition to me when I first came across this change of intent a year ago. But this newly added third leg from the interview: "there's a lot more products around the home that will emit sound and we think they should be emitting sounds through Sonos" expands the ambition and scope for the speakers dramatically, I think, much beyond where just voice control of music would have taken them.

And thank heavens, there is still no stated intent to pander to the red herring that hides any lack of real innovation - hi res.

G

Glockers

Avid Contributor I

Personally I love my Sonos gear for its reliability and solid networkability but I do think they have dragged their feet on support for higher resolution sound and a better quality Connect:Amp as this has forced me out in to different brands for a solution and I would guess I am not alone.

K

Kumar

No, you are not alone, but the question that matters to Sonos as commercial operation - a view reinforced by the silence on hi res in the interview - is how many like you are out there, compared to those like I who think that there is absolutely nothing that hi res brings to sound quality that cannot be obtained via access to the same master if there is anything wrong with original redbook master in the first place.

Or like those that aren't even aware of what hi res is, and therefore not bothered about it.

As to a better sounding Connect Amp - another requirement of a market that is too small to be of interest to Sonos.

U

upstatemike

You can use a Connect with any amp you like so what would be the point of coming out with a new amplified unit that is too expensive for some and still not "high end" enough for others? I would rather see an upgraded Connect with a headphone jack and an infrared receiver that would make it easy to use with a universal remote control.

Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever

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