In what would be a major departure from its speaker-oriented product lineup, Sonos may be planning to launch its own headphones, according to a Bloomberg report that cites sources who asked not to be identified.
The sources went on to say that they believe Sonos is targeting an approximate $300 price point, which would put it in direct competition with brands like Apple’s Beats, as well as similar models from Sony, Bose, and others.
If true, the move would be consistent with a message Sonos sent to shareholders in its fourth-quarter letter, which outlined the company’s plans for 2019 and specifically referenced
Additionally, we realize that while approximately 50 percent of listening happens in the home, the other 50 percent happens outside the home. So, to be the leading sound experience company, we need to continue to offer differentiated listening experiences in the home while extending our platform and products to all the places and spaces our customers listen to the fantastic breadth of audio content available on demand today. In FY2019, we plan to push our boundaries by investing resources to make the experience of Sonos outside the home a reality.
The real question is how will Sonos enable these rumored cans to access the full
Assuming Sonos figures out how to keep its incredibly intuitive and effective user experience consistent both inside and outside the home, this will be a big deal for its customers. Currently, the only way to listen to Sonos-managed music using headphones is to plug in to the headphone jack on an older, first-generation Play:5 speaker (this was removed on the current model), or use the headphone jack on an A/V or hi-fi amplifier that has access to
Another unknown is connectivity. Sonos has always said it prefers Wi-Fi over Bluetooth for the greater stability, range, and bandwidth that Wi-Fi provides. But would it use Wi-Fi to connect a pair of headphones? Wi-Fi is much hungrier for power that Bluetooth, and it’s worth noting that no
So for now, there are way more questions than answers. Nonetheless, it’s exciting to think that Sonos is beginning to think outside of the boxes that are our homes — it’s always been a little frustrating that there’s no way to keep using the
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