Where Does Sonos Go From Here?
To those of us who are longtime Sonos customers, it wasn’t much of a surprise that the maker of internet-connected speakers parted ways this morning with Patrick Spence, its embattled CEO. Last May, the company introduced a new version of its mobile app for controlling its speakers.
But the updated app left out a number of features that had been available in the older app for years. The changes enraged many Sonos diehards like me (I own eight of its devices). Many vented their frustrations on Reddit and other social media forums, even after Sonos began restoring missing features in the months afterward. (Sonos’ revenue fell 8% in the year to September, so the brouhaha appears to have also affected sales).
Sonos has always been a bit of an odd duck. There aren’t that many consumer electronics startups of its size created in the last quarter century (Sonos was founded in 2002) that have survived as independent companies. Its products are expensive relative to the wireless speakers that have flooded the market from big-name tech rivals like Amazon and no-name competitors from China. And yet, Sonos held on partly because it had a commitment to high-quality sound and an Apple-like dedication to user experience, both of which gave it a passionate fan base.
The events of the last year seem to have ruptured that relationship with many of its customers. Today, Spence’s replacement—Tom Conrad, a Sonos board member, who is now interim CEO—reportedly told staff he’s focused on repairing those relations. If he’s unsuccessful, it’s fair to wonder whether Sonos—whose market capitalization is around $1.7 billion—might be better off selling itself to a bigger rival like Amazon, Google or Apple.
Years ago, a former senior Apple executive told me he once begged Steve Jobs, who was then Apple’s CEO, to buy Sonos. Jobs wasn’t interested. A lot has changed since then, but the Sonos brand still might have enough cachet to interest a more powerful suitor.