Truly wireless - Battery Powered PLAY unit

Me too. =-)

I would prefer a portable and weatherproof Play 5, i.e. something that can extend my home system when I go out to the pool or on the dock.  In these areas, something like a Play 1 will barely give decent sound beyond a few feet.  To address that market, there are plenty of "personal" battery-powered external speakers available, but I need something that will cover 300 to 500 squatter feet.

Also, in both of these environments (pool and dock) it is unsafe to have anything plugged in to AC powered extensions, so I need it to be battery powered – especially if there are kids running around.

Again, there are plenty of "personal" solutions out there to play from my phone through WiFi or Bluetooth, but if I have a gathering at my home, I want to have the same source that's playing throughout the area.  After all, isn't that why everyone of us bought a Sonos  system.  Therefore, it needs to be more of the size of a Play 5 and more importantly, it needs to connect to the rest of the Sonos system.

Also, it needs to have replaceable battery packs, so that if I host a gathering that lasts from noon through the evening, I can have a few fully charged battery packs on hand, as I would for my digital camera.

If I had a home where it would make sense to leave something permanently outdoors, I'd simply buy a Connect:Amp and run wires to outdoor speakers.  But this comes at a different cost level.  Furthermore, when I'm only renting a cottage for the season, I'm not going to get into wiring?  The very fact that Sonos systems don't need wiring is what makes them so great for renters – i.e. if I move, all my investment in my Sonos goes with me.  

For all these reasons, I need a battery-pack-powered Play5 pack-and-play Sonos solution for outdoors.  

Correction, make that "several" 😉

Plus one here. in the UK we cannot have mains power in a bathroom. I would certainly take a Play 1 in there if I was able to lift the handle on top, to unlock it from its base, where inductive charging has charged the battery for my bathtime listening. If it can be done for a toothbrush.....

I would definitely buy a rechargeable battery powered Sonos unit, happily accepting a compromise on volume / power for the benefit of 3-4 hours occasional but convenient garden use synced up to my existing Sonos system.

Me too. I would love a sonos I could take to the bathroom or just outside the back door when sitting in the garden.

Would buy something like this today. Any update?

One more vote for a battery powered speaker. Would be nice to have a speaker I can take to parts of the house I'm not always in. I'm a big fan of the portable bluetooth speakers - so something small and portable. Bonus would be if it could play outside the system - on it's own - outside the house so I can take it to work or jobsites.

I vote for one too. This wouldn't be a replacement for any sonos equipment either like some state that sonos might fear. Personally it eludes me why people think sonos should make a break away from the sonos network version, that's just pie in the sky and redundant. If your away from home your ipad or iphone or laptop or android or whatever can dish up your content and you can use a jawbone or whatever. This is about a realistic request for a battery operated on-the-sonos-mesh network at home or office. For me I have zone with a connect that serves as 2 main as some call "None supported" purposes. The input is fed by an Apple Airport express to pipe Airplay into my sonos. This works great I might add. The output goes to a whole house fm transmitter I picked up from amazon, which works great too. I have a lot of tools and all these power tool lines from the big box hardware stores also sells portable radios that also fit their tool's rechargeable batteries. So my whole house transmitter transmits over fm to my portable battery powered boomboxes with very cool replaceable detachable and rechargeable easily acquired battery packs. So I can play my sonos and and control the content in my portable players outside, by the bbq, garage, garden, pool, you name it. All the places where there isn't outlets,

Now for the how a sonos portable player would improve this design; the hardware store tool manufacturers have done great to address the weather resistant, portable, descent sounding boomboxes with ipod docks, but they don't sound as good as sonos. They just can't because they aren't digital, they are receiving the sonos content over FM. I'll tell you it's 80% then nothing though. If sonos came out with a weather resistant play:1 or play:3 with a replaceable rechargeable battery pack, and nothing more, to stay within range of the sonos network, it would benefit both users and company sales, not take away from other sonos sales. I could see people at first diving in thinking I'll just get a portable sonos and I won't need all of those others, they'll get the bug anyway and buy buy buy just like the rest of us! So come on sonos, build this thing so we can buy it!!

I too would like to see a Play: T product to be used for people who travel. Here is a user story to clarify my thoughts: As a business traveler I want to travel with a small SONOS player Play:T that fits in my laptop travel case so I can listen to SONOS music when I am stuck in an airport, in a hotel room or play in the background during a presentation or training session. Play:T may support battery and USB for alternative power option when wall outlets are not available and headphone jack so I do not disturb other travelers.
Nice user story! I would add the word "rechargable", I personally think it would be preferable to have the unit recharge while connected to power e.g. have a detachable base (or docking station) on the unit which has the cable connection to the wall or USB but you could just pluck up the speaker and bring it with you to another room or out to the garden without interrupting the music leaving the base behind. When travelling you would bring the base/charger unit with you.

We definitely want to see such a device added to the Sonos family. I'd trip over myself to buy a device that integrates into my current Sonos set up but is free'd from the mains cable so it can be used in the bathroom or outdoors. Do it properly and add bluetooth functionality too so we can throw it in a suitcase and enjoy Sonos sound quality on the road streaming directly from our devices without the specific need to be connected to a wireless network and full blown Sonos environment (see Bose Mini Sound link). You'd clean up with that guys
For sure. I don't have a burning preference for how they might choose to do it. I understand this aptX bluetooth encoding is pretty impressive and obviously WiFi would be great too. Any option to free us from the dependancy on the sonosnet has to be a good thing - So much so, I'd accept a simple line in jack at worst( on something slightly more portable than a Play5) 

We definitely want to see such a device added to the Sonos family. I'd trip over myself to buy a device that integrates into my current Sonos set up but is free'd from the mains cable so it can be used in the bathroom or outdoors. Do it properly and add bluetooth functionality too so we can throw it in a suitcase and enjoy Sonos sound quality on the road streaming directly from our devices without the specific need to be connected to a wireless network and full blown Sonos environment (see Bose Mini Sound link). You'd clean up with that guys

The Pioneer can be linked up via DNLA or Airplay, BUT the sound is quite poor in comparison to the Play 1 or Play 3.  I've only listened to one, maybe others are better or the one I listened to was poor, but the Pioneer pales into insignificance next to Sonos.  There are a couple of other makes, notably Samsung and Bose that are about to introduce items and there are a few other Wifi enabled speakers.  Some are very expensive and others are pricey and poor sounding.  Sonos offers a great price/performance in my opinion.  If only the "Connect" components weren't so expensive I'd have some of those... maybe one day when I have saved up???