Sonos unveils first smart speaker, with Amazon’s help
Sonos has entered the growing smart speaker market, a move that forces the privately-held company to both compete and cooperate with some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Apple, Amazon.com and Google.
The Sonos One smart speaker, introduced at a Press conference in New York by CEO Patrick Spence, looks similar to the company’s Play:1 speaker but adds six far-field microphones for capturing voice commands and a new array of buttons at the top for controlling the device. The gadget includes Amazon’s Alexa voice software for controlling music playback, Sonos said at the product’s event. The company will add support for Google Assistant next year.
“Some companies put up walls, they say if you want access to everything you have to buy everything,” Spence said. “No one company gives you everything you need.”
The announcement comes just a week after Amazon introduced several new Alexa-powered Echo speakers, including a high-end model called the Echo Plus, a new middle-tier $99 version with louder speakers, and a nightstand-focused Echo Spot with a screen and video calling.
Sonos, known for sound quality, also will be competing with a similar product from Apple called the HomePod, which comes out in December and is controlled by the Siri voice-based digital assistant. Google announced a smaller, cheaper version of its Home smart speaker on Wednesday.
As an early pioneer in the internet-connected speaker space, Santa Barbara, California-based Sonos is late to the voice-controlled game. Amazon popularized this market with the Echo’s introduction in 2014, while Google’s first speaker hit the market in 2016. Apple’s HomePod was announced in June.
Beyond sound quality, Sonos said its smart speaker differentiates itself by supporting multiple voice assistants and music services. The new Sonos One speaker has Amazon’s Alexa built-in, so users can speak commands directly to the speaker. — Bloomberg