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Since nobody's answering. Amazon is demonstrating a possible further branching into the augmented speaker market, and demonstrating a quality build that suggest
by wjnc 8y ago
Since nobody's answering. Amazon is demonstrating a possible further branching into the augmented speaker market, and demonstrating a quality build that suggests improvements still to come - that is a great threat to any incumbent (can one call a firm pre-IPO that) that is a lot smaller. Sonos is left to carve a niche in the non-augmented digital speaker market. Other comments on this thread show that at least their capabilities app-wise are mediocre. Going heads-up with Amazon while lacking skills in your obvious market... that's a risky gamble for an IPO investor. (Can't say I totally buy that, but the technical teardown was very cool.)
- gh02t 8y agoYeah, the point is that Amazon's design costs more to produce and they sell it for a lower price. The Sonos design is more typical and $200 is probably closer to a "realistic" price. In other words, the design details from the teardown signal that Amazon is willing to eat losses on hardware, whereas Sonos can't afford to. Sonos doesn't have the alternative revenue streams that Amazon (and Google) have, making it hard to compete head on. I do think there is a niche for Sonos though, offering more music-focused options and sticking to the truly premium/high-end market, which Amazon seems less interested in. Google seems interested in that market segment with the Max, but I think they are still testing the waters so Sonos can still compete.