Sonos: streaming box apparently scrapped before announcement

Sonos is apparently abandoning its plans to enter the TV streaming market with a streaming box. This was reported by The Verge. Sonos has never confirmed the existence of its streaming box, and the product has never been announced. We therefore only know that it was actually planned from media reports.

According to The Verge, the streaming box, codename Pinewood, has been in beta testing for months. Interim CEO Tom Conrad has now made the decision not to launch the product on the market. The Sonos employees working on it are to move on to other projects, writes The Verge.

Price of up to 400 US dollars

This is apparently based on the strategic decision to focus more on the core business of wireless speakers for now. We can only speculate about the market prospects for a Sonos streaming box. What is clear is that the reportedly very high price of up to 400 US dollars would have deterred many customers.

The planned unique selling point of the streaming box was probably (of all things) the software: according to The Verge, the Android-based streaming box was to have an interface that bundles content from various streaming services in one overview. This would save users from having to browse through the separate libraries of streaming services to select films and series. Netflix and Disney+, among others, were to be supported.

It was software that recently got Sonos into massive difficulties: The false start of the new app angered customers and shook the company to such an extent that it parted ways with its CEO and other high-ranking managers. As a result, everything at Sonos is currently being scrutinized – and the streaming box could ultimately have fallen victim to the US company's app debacle.

(dahe)