Thoughts after the WWDC Keynote? (AIrPlay 2.0, HomePod, etc.)

Apple's entry into a wireless speaker will help SONOS - stimulating the market.
The HomePod is far to expensive compared to SONOS Play One and Dot.
Plus SONOS have all the streaming services with Alexa due soon.
HomePod looks like it will only have Apple Music integration- which makes sense, they dont want to encourage Spotify GPM etc

I think that Apple entering the market with a product that crosses both home assistants and home music diffusion is great to encourage others, like Sonos, to do their best.

What I can't still imagine is a Sonos-powered home replaced with HomePod (or Google's or Amazon's): I mean, these assistants have some kind of "brain" and would be a big waste to have 10 HomePods around the house; also (of course I haven't heard how it sounds) it's hard to see a single speaker replacing all the range Sonos is covering, from soundbars to subwoofers. What I was hoping for is a "brain" to better rule the existing Sonos lineup. I don't know who will produce it but that would be a great product; I'm not seeing at the moment any of them as a replacement for Sonos, even with a great sound quality.

Sonos still has its competition in Bose and other manufacturers. Of course, they have to improve (damn you!) the whole UX thing... I'm not up-to-date with Alexa integration (also outside English speaking countries Siri & co. don't do a great job) but would be cool to have it.

In the end, if I was living in a small house or room and need a single speaker, I would probably look forward Apple's. But for a larger, multiroom scenario still Sonos has the edge IMHO.

It pissed me off a bit seeing the Apple product integrate so well great sound quality and the ease of use of Siri. It's quite obvious now why we didn't have any development of the Apple Music experience on our Sonos, and why Apple Homekit is still neglecting the Sonos integration: Apple must have vetoed any work on its part. I could wait for the incredibly difficult Alexa integration (pun intended), but, living in Italy, I still won't be able to use any Alexa on the Sonos products for a long time, because Alexa doesn't understand nor speak Italian. So this puts me back to... dreaming of using Siri instead. And Siri speaks Italian, and understands it as well, for the little every day needs. And it's going to become even smarter. And at home we have two iPhones, two iPads, two Apple watches, an iMac, a MacBook and the AppleTV, so integrating a HomePod would be just easy.
I don't know. It's tempting. I have three Sonos Play 1 and one Sonos Play 5 sec gen, was planning to buy another 1, but now I'm getting confused. What if Apple begins producing a Surround set, a Sub and some bigger HomePods? I'd raise my hands and get them all.
Come on, Sonos: do the Alexa thing, and work on the Mobile player experience. I still can't do playlists, manage them, put the song I'm listening to on Facebook, edit queues... all the well know issues with the player, that is. So many things it's missing now.
IMHO, of course

Some folks here in the UK got Echos and Dots from the USA and got them working without Location Services etc
$50 for a Dot it may work with English when SONOS Alexa comes out. Prime wont work though.

I think HomePod launch outside the UK may be some time.

I was waiting the keynote, now I know I have to buy a Echo Dot to unite my Sonos speakers, Spotify Music and Hue lights! Looking forward to seeing what Sonos ans Echo do together (but afraid of being disappointed)! I had the original Alexa via work and when I had to give it back I bought a Dot. The Dot’s mics are not as good. Not sure why the reviews don’t identify this.

To sum it up. HomePod is not the right choice for home owners. It might be the right one for one room but it can't 'rock the house' as promised. I have no idea what Apple engineers thought about developing a single speaker without LAN and Fiber interfaces. I am operating about 10 zones in my home and I am loving the superbe TV integration and the full clear sound. How should I make a Home Theater installation with Apples HomePod without connecting it to the TV? How can I connect the speakers to my home ethernet in order to create a reliable and stable music network without destroying my WiFi bandwidth? How can I add some bass power in larger rooms (don't tell me this is not necessary)?
Dear Sonos developers. Please be open to AirPlay and AirPlay 2. Please try to integrate the beloved Apple ecosystem as good as possible. We want to use your excellent sound devices together with the beautiful Apple software like Siri and HomeKit. This way you can win the battle very easily.

Apple seems to be on the other side of the divide compared to Sonos or Amazon in wanting to be everything on its own here. Sonos has said that they want to be the speaker that is used in any home automation set up. Amazon says that they developed the Dot so that people could use Alexa skills with the speaker/make they like - both are partnering approaches.

I'd say Apple is wrong here, but it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

Apple have said there will be an API to allow music streaming services to integrate with the HomePod.

I am appreciative of the sound quality and usually superb multi-room functionality of my Sonos gear. However, Sonos is falling far behind in its interface and features. Before the usual "defenders" jump in, I don't care whose fault it is. My Sonos lacks key functionality in everything from music to podcasts to audio books. My hope is that the latest Apple moves will force Sonos to move into higher gear and convince it to attempt to persuade third parties to step up their Sonos game.

Apple have also removed the need for the hardware authentication chip for HomeKit devices.