Sonos is planning a loaded 2024 with new products, including headphones and a set-top box.
H Sonos will release its first set of headphones next year, as the company has persistently hinted in recent weeks. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg claims so, estimating the release date in April. The over-ear headphones are rumored to cost between 400 and 500 dollars, which is extremely expensive for a startup company in this market.
Their ability to sync music with other Sonos products in your home will be at least one of their standout features. Additionally, Sonos Voice Control, unlike other, more general voice assistants from Amazon, Apple , and Google, is already focused primarily on music-related commands and will be included on the headphones. According to Bloomberg, Sonos has been developing the headphones since 2019, but has canceled previous versions of the device, so the company's previous patent applications likely won't have much of an impact on the hardware that eventually comes out. Sonos could release a line of wireless headphones to compete with the headphones.
Sonos can charge $500 for its first pair of headphones.
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said during the company's quarterly earnings call last week that the company intends to enter a new multi-billion-dollar category in the second half of the fiscal year. This will represent the majority of the $100 million that Sonos expects to receive from the launch of new products in 2024.
See also: Will Eminem collaborate with the video game "Fortnite"?
Additionally, according to Bloomberg, Sonos is planning to release a streaming device in late 2024 or early 2025. As The Protocol noted in March of last year, the company has been hinting at its interest in video for the past few years through job postings related to a “ Home Theater OS.” Like all other modern streaming devices, the device is billed as a small black box and will feature extensive voice control. While Sonos is already in talks to create apps for streaming services like Netflix, it may also introduce its own service, similar to what it has done in the audio space.
next-generation Roam portable Bluetooth will also be available in 2024. The update will bring it in line with the Move 2 and the controls on top of the Era speakers. Hopefully, Sonos will also address the reliability and battery life issues raised by some users of the first-generation models. These issues have been around for some time, and customers have expressed their frustration.
See also: Google, Amazon, Snap and Zillow are moving forward with new layoffs
A new soundbar, the successor to the Sonos Arc, is expected to launch in late 2024, along with an updated Sub and a business-oriented Era 100 model with built-in ethernet, according to a Bloomberg report. A “loud pop” issue that Arc owners had been facing since the $900 device was released in 2020 was only recently fixed by Sonos. The updated soundbar, which could cost about $1,200 more than the Arc, will incorporate technology from Mayht, a startup Sonos acquired in 2022. It will then compete directly with more expensive Dolby Atmos speaker sets offered by Samsung and other tech companies.
Sonos tries to reverse a serious drop in demand with this wave of new devices
After the significant drop in customer demand for the company's products in 2023, the wave of upcoming products aims to revive Sonos's hardware revenue. As a result, in June, Sonos laid off 7% of its workforce. And just last week, Sonos announced more layoffs from its product development team, exactly the team you would expect to be relatively safe as the company pursues new hardware categories. Spence had stated that 2024 will mark the beginning of a multi-year product cycle where we expect the benefits of our research and development investments to bear fruit.
We are satisfied with the current size of our team», said Spence upon completing the earnings call for the fourth quarter. «To achieve our long‑term growth objectives, we do not see the need to add many more people». All these goals revolve around what Sonos calls «flywheel», the idea that current users will regularly add new products to their Sonos system, will occasionally swap old equipment for the latest model, and will tell others about the company in order to grow its customer base.
The clear differentiation from the highly successful competitors will be Sonos's biggest challenge when it finally enters the headphones and decoder space.
Source of information: https://www.theverge.com
