arghyle

Not too long ago I got an email from Sonos. This is a product I was really impressed with when I used it and always said I would buy (if I had a place large enough to warrant it). There has not been much news from the company lately and they did not have much to say at CES either, but they make one product so aside from incremental upgrades, there is not really anything to announce.

Anyway, the email sat in my inbox for a while and I never got to it, but I was doing some cleaning today and figured I would post. The email really just threw out some interesting stats about the company, how they did in 2006, and what’s planned for 2007.

2006 Progress Report [from the email]

• In 2006, Sonos increased sales by 150% over 2005, now with over 100,000 units sold.
• Households increased more than 120% over 2005, with 10’s of thousands of customers.
• In 2006, Sonos released two pieces of software – including Sonos 2.0 which was an industry breakthrough.  It was the first time a device was able to speak directly to a music service – bypassing the need of a computer
• In 2006, Sonos brought the price of multi-room music down to $999 for two rooms of music with the introduction of the Sonos ZonePlayer 80.
• In 2006, Sonos won a number of awards and industry accolades, including the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award for Consumer Electronics, MacWorld Editor Choice Award, DEMMX Billboard Digital Music Innovation of the Year Award (2nd year in a row), and many more.

What to Expect in 2007 [from the email]

•  Moving content throughout the home – this is beginning to be a crowded market.  What is the difference between media adapters and devices that distribute content throughout the home?  What types of technologies work and which have limitations?
• Microsoft Vista launch – How have partners worked with Microsoft on Vista support?  What did Sonos have to do to get Microsoft to buy into the concept of multi-room music?  Microsoft XP was about moving the consumer to digital content.  Microsoft Vista is about putting that content to use via devices such as Sonos.  How is Sonos supporting the Zune Marketplace?
• Challenges of DRM – Is Apple going to open up Fairplay?  What happened to MSFT Play For Sure?  Have DRM issues forced the record labels to sell downloads as MP3s?  Who really suffers when it comes to DRM – the consumer!
• Digital Music 2.0 – The landscape of the digital music business is quickly changing.  New ways of accessing and listening to digital music are emerging.  Subscription models for music are beginning to win over people.  The use of APIs on music services makes it easier for devices to speak directly to these services.

All told, a pretty interesting email. There were no announcements, but the high points were the fact that the unit can be had for as little at $999 for two zones and that in 2006 they increased sales by over 120% (though that 100,000 units number is probably cumulative). From a technical standpoint the company was able to release a new version of its software as well as the Z80 player, and to get the player to work directly with digital music services (like Rhapsody). Steps like these are how this expensive system is able to compete against all the other devices, the vast majority of which cost much less (like the Squeeze Box).

If Sonos wanted to make some noise and get keep people talking about their system they definitely should look closely at doing few things in 2007. How about releasing the Zone Players in black? How about a corporate blog to keep us updated? Or maybe some sort of slick Ipod integration or make it possible to read RSS feeds on your Controller? Or better podcast support? Having a strong 2006 is a great sign, but you have to give people a reason to stay interested…

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