Has anyone got an official answer from SONOS about AMAZON ECHO Integration?

Agreed, and that's the point. What is Sonos' core competency going forward? Are they a speaker manufacturer, are they a multi-room wireless service? What's the point of having the Sonos app integrate 10 different music services which are essentially the same? Are they going to develop their own voice system specific to just controlling music? Inevitably, Amazon will add multiroom wireless to the Echo's capabilities - they're almost there already with Spotify and Prime Music integration. Echo will go (and already does) far beyond music control in the home. Google's almost there with CCA, their own music service and Nest. They just need to add a few functionality tweaks. It's a tough road for Sonos.

If I had a dime for every time someone predicted Sonos' imminent demise due to "new technology XYZ" brought out by "Big Pockets company IJK", I could buy a new Play:5 and a year of Apple Music. I would suggest doing a search for the King of the Doom and Gloom Posters 'wappinghigh' if the search facility actually worked; but alas it doesn't. Suffice to say if his many predictions came true, Sonos would be owned by Apple, in court for DRM hacking, put out of business by Linksys, Logitech, Sony, Yamaha, Bluesound, Spotify Connect, (and a dozen other companies) or relegated to the scrapheap just because they didn't perfect a Sonos brand router, Sonos brand NAS, Sonos brand dedicated ripper, Sonos brand clock radio, Sonos brand TV display, support Hi-res audio, or hire him as a consultant. Strangely enough, he peppered his posts with phrases like "a company caught napping", "they used to be the best but now . . . ", etc.

So why don't we all sit back and let it all unfold, lest one suffers years of embarrassment like our old friend 'wappinghigh'.

I'm interested, what is Sonos' core competency going forward?

I'm interested, what is Sonos' core competency going forward?

They make superb speakers with an excellent interface allowing it's millions of users to listen to all the music they could possibly want.

They are also pretty good at ignoring noise from negative posters or allowing themselves to be tempted by the "magic" ideas thrown their way at an alarming rate.

I'm interested, what is Sonos' core competency going forward?

What makes you think that just because you buy their product you should be privileged to ask, never mind actually get an answer, for this decidedly internal and proprietary information?

I think the poster was asking you what YOU thought the answer was

To be honest - and I know a little about technology - I don't see the opportunity in voice for Sonos. Echo seems to be growing daily - and with the introduction of that $90 smaller unit - that doesn't seem to be a pricepoint Sonos has played in ..

And that is just the hardware. There is the cost of the entire ecosystem behind Voice - which again - Sonos doesn't have. They would have a lot to create - without a clear revenue stream in return

And they just laid people off ? That usually is NOT a good sign for a company that is growing - and investing

And to my knowledge, Sonos has no recurring revenue stream. Its not like there is a subscription fee you pay to Sonos after the initial purpose

So we are back to partnering. But after a year of letting the Echo establish a marketplace - and a 2nd round of product enhancements - delays in partnering are a little more than curious .

I think the poster was asking you what YOU thought the answer was



I have no idea what their core competency is or should be. I'm neither a venture capital investor nor a long term business planner. I'm a software engineer and a customer. As a customer, I bought Sonos for what it is, and it is still what I bought it and then some. It they improve upon that with some whizbang thing like voice? Yay for me! If they partner up with someone like Amazon? Again, yay for me! If they don't and something comes along that better suits my (and the industry's) changing expectations? I'll ditch Sonos and buy the something else. Not as much "Yay for me!", but that is life, and I've got too much to do and not enough time to fret over something I bought over 8 years. Besides, new stuff is great!

Anyway, all three of those outcomes I find far better and more fulfilling than whinging on a company website about their core competency and how it affects my purchase, a purchase which is about .00005% of their income for a year, never mind the 8 years I've owned it. Maybe when I get up to .0001%, I'll start to think I'm owed their inside info. Then again, maybe not. :)

As always, YMMV.

What's the point of having the Sonos app integrate 10 different music services which are essentially the same?

Err, so what are you saying? There should only be one music service on Sonos? Which one? Amazon? Not available outside the US. Sonos don't integrate the music services, the services do that themselves, there's nothing stopping every music service in the world adding itself to Sonos. What's the point of NOT doing that? That's the CEO's point, "now that all the music in the world is available". It isn't if you take all but one music service away.

Sonos doesn't need to compete WITH Echo and similar services. They should be looking to integrate with as many of these services as possible. The direct integration with Google Play Music is/was a start, but feels stagnant now. Sonos (imho) should be focusing on being the leader in quality speaker and sound technology that just works. And by just works, that means integrating with the services that you use (even if there are 10 different ones that are prevalent) and the home automation and voice controllers that are becoming ubiquitous. It's no longer a leaderless, fragmented herd.

I won't get into having a $300 connect when Chromecasts are available for $35 (or less), but honestly the product direction at Sonos must go beyond making great speakers that just work together.

The market is catching up, and being the leader in integrations with services like Alexa, direct connections with streaming services, connecting with Nest, deeper integration with SmartThings, etc. are definitively critical to keep this company moving forward.

Focusing on streaming services is necessary, but not nearly enough as home automation and voice control are critical and there are clear movers in this space. Get on board while you can, Sonos.

As Matthew said above, Sonos makes a few things:
-speakers
-Multiroom, wireless mesh to integrate them
-app that aggregates music from multiple sources to play on their speakers in their mesh

That's about it - not to minimize how well they do it.

They have been the only game in town and did it the best - created a market. The problem, as witnessed by their layoffs and vague press conference, is that some pretty big names have jumped in the game and are picking off pieces of their "system". That system is really their strength because there are competitive alternatives for each component in their system. Nobody yet has created something as good - in total. There speakers are very good, but c'mon man there are hundreds of great speaker manufacturers. They have the best mesh but Google is strengthing quickly and can leverage whatever speaker you feel is best, not just three or four models. Amazon has developed the uber-interface with Echo and can already play music from multiple sources by just telling it to do so - no phone, no app required. By the end of the year they'll have a SonosNet equivilant tying their echo speakers together with voice.

And it doesn't stop there, both google and amazon are looking far beyond music to whole house integration. Music will be just one piece of it. You can already see this with how Nest and Echo integrate with other devices in the home - thermostats, lights, garage door openers, security systems, cameras, etc. They both have their respective clouds to leverage too. I own a few thousand $$ of Sonos equipment but before I buy anymore I waiting to see something concrete on what their vision is.