It’s been a busy couple of months for good audio system — Amazon launched a bunch simply this week, together with up to date variations of its present Echo {hardware} and a brand new Echo Studio with premium sound. Sonos additionally launched its first moveable speaker with Bluetooth assist, the Sonos Move, and in August launched its collaboration assortment with Ikea. Meanwhile, Apple didn’t say something concerning the HomePod at its newest massive product occasion — an omission that makes it all of the extra apparent the good transfer could be for Apple to amass an organization that is aware of what they’re doing on this class: Sonos.
Highly aligned
From an outsider perspective, it’s arduous to seek out two firms that appear extra philosophically aligned than Sonos and Apple in relation to product design and enterprise mannequin. Both are clearly centered on delivering premium {hardware} (at a value level that’s usually on the increased finish of the mass market) and each use providers to enhance and complement the enchantment of their {hardware}, even when Apple’s been shifting that blend a bit with a fast-growing providers enterprise.
Sonos, like Apple, clearly has a powerful focus and deep funding in industrial design, and places a number of effort into really distinctive product feel and look that stands out from the gang — and is immediately identifiable as soon as you realize what to search for. Even the corporate’s desire for a largely black and white palette feels distinctly Apple — at the least Apple main as much as the prior renaissance of multi-color palettes for a few of its extra fashionable units, together with the iPhone.
From a technical perspective, Apple and Sonos appear eager to work collectively — and the outcomes of their collaboration has been nice for customers who use each ecosystems. AirPlay 2 assist is successfully customary on all fashionable Sonos {hardware}, and actually Sonos is actually the default alternative already for anybody trying to do AirPlay 2-based multiform audio, because of the big selection of choices out there in numerous kind components and at completely different value factors. Sonos and Apple additionally supply an Apple Music integration for Sonos’ controller app, and now you should use voice management by way of Alexa to play Apple Music, too.
Competitive strikes
The most important difficulty that an Apple-owned Sonos hasn’t made a lot sense prior to now, at the least from Sonos’ perspective, is that the speaker maker has reaped the advantages of being a platform that performs good with all the foremost streaming service suppliers and digital assistants. Recent Sonos audio system supply each Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant assist, as an example, and Sonos’ software program has connections with just about each main music and audio streaming service out there.
What’s modified, particularly in gentle of Amazon’s slew of bulletins this week, is that opponents like Amazon are trying extra like they wish to personal extra of the enterprise that at the moment falls inside Sonos’ area. Amazon’s Echo Studio is a brand new premium speaker that instantly competes with Sonos in a manner that earlier Echos actually haven’t, and the corporate has constantly been releasing better-sounding variations of its different, extra reasonably priced Echos. It’s additionally been rolling out extra feature-rich multi-room audio options, together with wi-fi encompass assist for house theater use — all issues squarely within the Sonos wheelhouse.
For now, Sonos and Amazon appear to be comfortably in “frenemy” territory, however more and more, it doesn’t appear to be Amazon is content material to go away them their higher-end market section in relation to the speaker {hardware} class. Amazon nonetheless in all probability will do no matter it might to maximise use of Alexa, on each its personal and third-party units, but it surely additionally appears to be intent on strengthening and increasing its personal first-party gadget lineup, with audio system as low-hanging fruit.
Other opponents, together with Google and Apple, don’t appear to have had as a lot success with their merchandise that line up as direct opponents to Sonos, however the speaker-maker additionally faces perennial challenges from hi-fi and audio business stalwarts, and likewise appears prone to go up in opposition to newer gadget makers with audio ambitions and clear value benefits, like Anker.
Missing components/work to be achieved
Of course, there are some massive challenges and potential purple flags that stand in the way in which of Apple ever shopping for Sonos, or of that ensuing union understanding nicely for customers. Sonos works so nicely as a result of it’s service-agnostic, as an example, and the important thing to its success with latest merchandise appears to even be integration with the good house assistants that folks appear to truly wish to use most — specifically Alexa and Google Assistant.
Under Apple possession, it’s extremely attainable that Apple Music would at the least get preferential therapy, if not turn out to be the lone streaming service on supply. It’s possible that Siri would substitute Alexa and Assistant as the one digital voice service out there, and nearly unthinkable that Apple would proceed to assist competing providers if it did make this purchase.
That stated, there’s in all probability vital overlap between Apple and Sonos prospects already, and so long as there was some service flexibility (in the identical manner there’s for streaming opponents on iOS units, together with Spotify), then being locked into Siri in all probability wouldn’t sting as a lot. And it could serve to present Siri the foothold at house that the HomePod hasn’t managed to offer. Apple would even be higher incentivized to work on enhancing Siri’s efficiency as a basic home-based assistant, which might in the end be good for Apple ecosystem prospects.
Another good adjacency
Apple’s greater acquisitions are few and much between, however the ones it does make are usually clearly adjoining to its core enterprise. A Sonos acquisition has a reasonably robust precedent within the Beats buy Apple made in 2014, albeit with out the robust motivator of offering the underlying product and relationship foundation for launching a streaming service.
What Sonos is, nevertheless, is an inversion of the historic Apple mannequin of utilizing nice providers to promote {hardware}. The Sonos ecosystem is a superb, straightforward to make use of, premium-feel technique of profiting from Apple’s music and video streaming providers (and model new video games subscription providing), all of that are extra vital than ever to the corporate because it diversifies from its monolithic iPhone enterprise.
I’m hardly the primary to counsel an Apple-Sonos deal is sensible: J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee steered it earlier this 12 months, in actual fact. From my perspective, nevertheless, the timing has by no means been higher for this acquisition to happen, and the motivations by no means stronger for both social gathering concerned.
Disclosure: I labored briefly for Apple in its communications division in 2015-2016, however the above evaluation is predicated totally on publicly out there data, and I maintain no inventory in both firm.