Sonos' Future Focuses on Software, Integration, Partnerships

Brad Duea, Sonos managing director/general manager-Americas-Pacific, wouldn’t tell us in a post-conference interview whether Sonos also is working with Apple on Siri voice integration or with Microsoft for Cortana, but said there’s nothing exclusive in the partnership with Alexa. "We’re very excited about our partnership with them, and we’re very excited about voice ... but no exclusivity,” he said.

Duea did tell us Sonos’ home automation partners, part of a custom integrator channel initiative announced Tuesday, do allow integration with voice -- enabling users to control their Sonos systems via manufacturer remote controls. On why Sonos is embarking on the Endorsed Partner program now, Duea said, “We wanted to get the customer experience right.” Sonos focused on experiences with each partner individually, he said. “We know that we can bring more experiences to customers through partners rather than doing it all ourselves.” Sonos will support the endorsed solutions, which it worked on with manufacturers, now and in the future, he said.

Sonos’ Endorsed Partner integrations with connected home companies Crestron, Lutron, Savant, Control4, iPort and Deutsche Telekom’s Qivicon “seamlessly integrate” Sonos’ sound platform into the connected home, said Duea, making it easier for customers to control music by means other than the Sonos app. Savant, for instance, integrated Sonos into its remote. With all of the partner integrations, users can control basic Sonos functions and see metadata for song titles and album art, he said.

Sonos will have its own booth at CEDIA Expo next month and will show integrations with partner companies in their booths, said Duea. The closer ties with the CEDIA channel come as Sonos, the leader in multiroom wireless audio since it launched the category more than a decade ago, has started to lose market share to Bose, for one (see 1603020049) in the still-fledgling category.

Bluesound, Denon’s Heos, Play-Fi and Yamaha’s MusicCast are all vying for slices of the multiroom pie, and they bring to the CEDIA channel margins more in line with what specialty dealers are accustomed to from audio vendors. Google Cast, adopted by Sony, Riva Audio and others, also pose a threat to Sonos’ dominance. Dealers have long lamented thin margins they make from Sonos products, which they’ve compared with those in the computing world. Duea wouldn’t comment on margins, citing company policy, when we asked whether more attractive margins were part of Sonos’ new initiative with custom channel dealers.

Instead, Duea said, Sonos tried to “create great solutions for customers together, and now there are more ways to implement Sonos within the home” for high-end, middle-market or DIY customers, “so that should help."

Duea cited Lutron Pico remote, which now offers audio capability along with control of lights and shades. Implementations among the custom vendors vary, he said. “Whether it’s a switch, a touchpad, a remote control, even voice with some of our customers in the remotes, all of that is about simply and easily controlling Sonos,” he said. The iPort is a magnetic battery-powered touchpad that can attach to a wall. “With one touch of a button, you’re playing Sonos,” he said. Control4’s integration incorporates geofencing, allowing users to turn on music and lights inside the house in a welcome-home scene from their car at a certain distance away.

Sonos’ relationship with DT is a little different from the others. The wireless carrier is private-labeling Sonos under the company’s Qivicon smart home platform and making it available to other carriers including Dutch telecom KPN, he said. Adding Sonos allows carriers to generate a new revenue stream, said Duea. On whether Sonos plans similar initiatives with U.S. carriers, Duea said, “What we’re announcing today is integration with that platform,” declining to comment on a future road map.

Sonos also said it integrated with Spotify Connect, enabling subscribers to control Sonos from within the Spotify app, including play controls and access to grouping and ungrouping of rooms. Spotify Premium users will be the first to have full control of music outside of the Sonos app with a free public beta test slated for October.

The free Spotify software update will be available in October as part of a Sonos public beta program. Pandora will follow in 2017, said Sonos, and it will enable direct control experiences across its full lineup of music service partners eventually. The current Sonos roster has 80 music streaming music services, said Chief Marketing Officer Joy Howard.

The Sonos conference was billed expressly as a software event when invitations were sent. When we asked if the Sonos hardware lineup is on hold, Duea said the company focused on “timeless designs” in hardware. When customers buy Sonos hardware, “it gets better over time” with software updates, he said. On the hardware side, Sonos’ goal is to get the most solutions with the fewest number of products -- 10 -- “so it’s really simple for customers,” he said.

Duea referred to hardware companies that create “proactive hardware obsolescence” and said, “We want to buck that trend and improve our experience through the power of software.” Voice, other partner apps and control company integrations are part of that strategy, he said. Sonos’ hardware partners can do the heavy lifting now. “Many of them will be bringing hardware elements to this solution,” said Duea. “We actually bring more elements of an overall solution, even though it’s not our own hardware.”