Sonos Working With Ikea on Speaker Integration Akin to a SoC, Sonos CEO Says
Sonos’ partnership with Ikea is a look at the future of home speaker integration, CEO Patrick Spence told a Raymond James investors conference Tuesday. It’s working with the home furnishings company on products that leverage Sonos technology and the tech…
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company’s software platform. The attraction for Ikea is Sonos’ ability to connect across the big tech companies “because you shouldn’t be trapped in one ecosystem,” Spence said. Ikea did well in smart lighting taking the same approach, he said. Ikea recently demoed a shelf that “fills a room with sound,” to give an idea of what’s possible with the Sonos relationship, he said. The executive underscored Ikea’s strength is furniture and Sonos technology will create “new ways to make sound from interesting products,” rather than inexpensive copycat products. Sonos is selling Ikea an SoC, which will allow Ikea customers to control music with the Sonos app from products Spence presented as “Sonos inside.” The hope is to then sell those customers “another Sonos product” and add on over time. The Ikea relationship, coming in 2019, is part of an international expansion to more countries; today five countries generate 80 percent of Sonos sales, Spence said.