Sonos - Announces massive lay offs to pursue voice control

[Teken]

In the last few days I have been publishing news articles which indicate some of the largest makers are pursuing some kind of voice hardware as seen here: http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/18615-google-working-on-a-echo-competitor-product/

 

I intended to include this information with the Google thread but thought it would be best to leave Sonos on their own. I am not sure how this company will fair in this area but do have to say sometimes it takes a completely different market to push the envelope not considered.

 

Here is the news article for Sonos: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/sonos-announces-layoffs-pivot-toward-voice-control.html

 

Does anyone want to guess how the company will do in this sector? My take is they will either copy what everyone else is doing or really come out swinging with technologies or methods not considered in the voice control arena.

 

Only time will tell if their investment in this area will show what can be done in the voice industry.

 

 

[shannong]

Interesting and thanks for the share.

 

This is probably more defensive and reactive than pushing the envelope. The article says it "could put them in direct competition with Amazon". I'd say that already happened and the Echo is changing the game for Sonos and others.

[Scottmichaelj]

I feel Sonos is loosing on the AV integration side this missing added revenue. They are not AV friendly, no APIs and better options like Casatunes are available. I for one dont care if they close up.

 

The one sad thing for is Evernote. The CEO/founder left along with other top names in the company. I personally love Evernote and use it for everything. It concerns me what's happening over there. They have even shuttered some apps "to concentrate" on the underlying Evernote app. IE meaning downsizing. I hate to think what I would replace it with.

[Teken]

I thought it was really odd to find out none of the Sonos speakers allows a person to link via BLE to a outside source?!?

 

WTF is with that?

[Scottmichaelj]

I thought it was really odd to find out none of the Sonos speakers allows a person to link via BLE to a outside source?!?

 

WTF is with that?

Its BS but the work around is a small Bluetooth receiver like:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MJMV0GU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1459802222&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=bluetooth+receiver&dpPl=1&dpID=41pKw6udbvL&ref=plSrch

 

IMHO if you do get one try and make sure to get one with APT and/or BTE4.0

[Teken]

Its BS but the work around is a small Bluetooth receiver like:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MJMV0GU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1459802222&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=bluetooth+receiver&dpPl=1&dpID=41pKw6udbvL&ref=plSrch

 

IMHO if you do get one try and make sure to get one with APT and/or BTE4.0

 

Yeah nice little device but doesn't help with anything other than the play 5. But doing some quick searching indicates Sonos has made the ability to play stored music on the iPhone accessible.

 

It still doesn't help if I have a device which I want to connect to the speaker like say a You Tube video on my phone.

[Scottmichaelj]

Yeah nice little device but doesn't help with anything other than the play 5. But doing some quick searching indicates Sonos has made the ability to play stored music on the iPhone accessible.

 

It still doesn't help if I have a device which I want to connect to the speaker like say a You Tube video on my phone.

Yeah but airplay kills battery life on the iphone so most of the time it has to be connected. Most people over look this.