What if Sonos disappeared?

Interesting info suggesting new Sonos speakers with built-in voice control microphones. https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/18/16170672/sonos-smart-speaker-privacy-policy

Bose - On third redesign in 4 years.
Denon - Second redesign in less time than Bose, promised multiple features that never arrived.
Apple - Airplay 1 a failure, just now using from-the-source streaming that Sonos debuted over a decade ago.
Samsung - Basically dead.
Bluesound - Niche product.
Yamaha - Third failure in a row for multi-room audio.
LG - Who knows?

Sonos - Best selling, best reviewed, most awarded, most selection, 1st with third party voice control.

I wouldn't worry about Sonos.
D&M (Denon and Marantz, they both use the same system) extended their system and products, but it's still protocol compatible with each other, much like Sonos has done over time. So it's not a redesign, and yet offers a larger selection than Sonos in terms of physical products by a long shot, including full AVRs, and a four zone amplifier for system integrators. This is by far the most direct competitor to Sonos, with its big downsides being lack of installed base (if you have one Sonos device, would you really go out and buy a HEOS if you were getting three more?) and less third party integration - with Alexa coming next month. The big advantages to HEOS, at the moment, is AVR integration, which will rapidly increase its installed base, and support for high res audio and other formats.

You're also forgetting Elan's G!, which has had Alexa support for over a year along with whole house audio.

And Microsoft, which had wireless synchronized streaming music (without integrated speakers, but still) back in 2007(!) and still supports it on the same protocol and is certainly more relevant than AirPlay since even Sonos supports it. Oh, and has Cortana voice control for a few years now.

Or Slimdevices/Logitech, which exited the market for still unfathomable reasons after 2010 - at the time, they were also a great Sonos competitor.

Now, Sonos won't go away anytime soon, and I think it's a great product and certainly the market leader, and it sounds good enough for most people as expected at its price point. I'm honestly trying to get my mom to buy a Sonos setup because of how good it is, but it's certainly not for everybody and the competition is a lot bigger than this little list.

Interesting info suggesting new Sonos speakers with built-in voice control microphones. https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/18/16170672/sonos-smart-speaker-privacy-policy
Useful link, thank you.
Good summary pasted from the link: " Despite all the hints, we still don’t know what to expect from Sonos’ next wave of speakers. With no far-field microphones in its current line of speakers (sorry current Sonos owners) we’re likely to get redesigned speakers, as it’d be tough to release the same speakers with microphones at the same price. And it’ll probably sound better as well, but whether Sonos sticks to its current lineup or introduces an entirely new format remains to be seen.
With competition on the high end from Apple, and possibly from Amazon in the future, Sonos is preparing for real competition — something it hasn’t had in years."

Does this mean that there is a higher risk of Sonos going out of business in a way that affects usability of existing products? I don't think so, not anymore than before, or for similar products from companies of the same size/scale of operations.

Jgatie, saying that Sonos is the first system to have voice control when they officially don't is very misleading.

I don't doubt that it will arrive, and probably within the next couple of months, but although some of us have found solutions, it ain't here yet.

Actually Amazon themselves could be the first to offer a multi room voice controlled audio system. I also read a similar article that's already been posted here about Amazon adding the multi room feature yesterday, and it made me wonder if the integration with amazon that Sonos are working on is being delayed due to some kind of agreement between Sonos and Amazon?
For all we know it might have been stipulated in the terms of the deal that Sonos can't add the voice control until Amazon themselves have a working multi room solution?

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-s-echoes-can-finally-sync-together-to-play-music-1798535130

Now that Amazon have added multiroom synced playback to their Echo devices I'm even more convinced that there was a stipulation that although Amazon would work with Sonos on integration with Alexa, it would be Amazon that got to release their multiroom/synced playback feature before Sonos could release their Alexa integration update.

This is a major blow to Sonos as now millions of Amazons existing Echo user base can suddenly have Sonos like functionality, and what's more it's much cheaper and allows people to link virtually any speaker of their choice to their Echo devices if they want better sound than their Echo device can provide.

Obviously sound quality is a major factor for all of us existing Sonos users, but for the vast majority of people who want to play music around their homes the audio quality from an Echo will be good enough.

I would describe it as a significant challenge rather than a major blow. As with any challenge it's the response that counts. We shall have to wait and see.

Obviously sound quality is a major factor for all of us existing Sonos users, but for the vast majority of people who want to play music around their homes the audio quality from an Echo will be good enough.

It isn't so much a matter of different types of people as it is different situations. In places where you mainly want music in the background for entertaining, mealtimes, etc. an Echo or Echo Show is more than sufficient. For critical listening or to crank things up for serious partying Sonos will work better but you can still get there using an Echo Dot plus some other equipment. The question for me now is how easy is it going to be to combine the Sonos and Echo environments? Will a mix of Echos and Sonos gear give me the ideal system or will it be too fiddly and drive me to use Echo Dots with other gear to create a more seamless user experience? Note I am less concerned about extra effort to set up than I am about making it as easy as possible to use.

It makes me wonder what, if any involvement Sonos may have had in helping Amazon achieve multiroom/synced audio.

As you say, I guess we will have to wait and see how things turn out.

Obviously I really hope this doesn't threaten the end of Sonos as their products are fantastic for their audio quality, and with the launch of Alexa integration and new voice controlled products being announced very soon at least Sonos are joining the party, I just hope it's not too little too late.

I'd love to listen to this speaker to see how it sounds, products such as this are what I would regard as a major blow to Sonos:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tech/smart-home/ninety7-vaux-speaker-for-amazon-echo-dot-grey-10167469-pdt.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istItemId=xlallmmmlt&istBid=tztx&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~1051+%28PLA%29+SMART+HOME+CONTROL+-+Adaptive~1051+%28PLA%29+SMART+HOME+CONTROL+-+Adaptive+ad+group~Exact&mctag=gg_goog_7904&kwid=GOOGLE&device=c&ds_kids=92700022757610838&PLA=1&tgtid=1051+%28PLA%29+SMART+HOME+CONTROL+-+Adaptive&gclid=CjwKCAjwxJnNBRAMEiwA8X_-QfWuN6zBO9EH4Dal2eIKyxa6sdTpttCbaLO8Bk1GbeuHofZ7yzlX5hoCqhkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CN3Bs6j2_tUCFfeo7QodT50Hsw