Sonos has reportedly cancelled its plans to launch an Apple TV 4K-rivalling streaming field.
Final month we reported on the information of a significant Sonos launch into an all-new product class later this yr. Growth was stated to be dar alongside, with the product having spent months in beta testing.
Nonetheless, The Verge is now reporting that Sonos has cancelled the mission altogether. Apparently, Sonos executives introduced the information at an all-hands firm name that was held yesterday.
What was Sonos’s mission Pinewood?
The product referred to internally as Pinewood was to be a high-end video streaming system that might rival the Apple TV 4K, Google TV Streamer and Roku Streaming Stick 4K.
It could have regarded like a nondescript black sq. not a lot thicker than a deck of playing cards.
In addition to boasting the standard 4K HDR playback chops, Pinewood would have featured a unified UI that pulled in content material from all the standard streaming companies. It could have had a robust common search system and Sonos Voice Management for straightforward navigation.
The place Sonos’s streaming field would actually have stood out from the group is with its alleged HDMI passthrough performance. Apparently you’ll have been capable of plug your video games console, Blu-Ray participant, and different linked gadgets into the Sonos field, which might then lay on lag-free wi-fi audio to Sonos soundbars and audio system.
It could even have been capable of configure a full encompass sound system from disparate Sonos audio system.
Foundry
Why has Sonos cancelled its streaming field?
Whereas the mission was initially green-lit by former CEO Patrick Spence, interim CEO Tom Conrad is claimed to have a unique view.
Specifically, Conrad is claimed to be targeted on strengthening the corporate’s core necessities with a purpose to restore its broken repute. Specifically the corporate nonetheless wants to revive religion in its software program after the disastrous relaunch of the Sonos app.
It appears the staff engaged on Pinewood will now be reassigned to different Sonos initiatives, with a push into video stated to be off the desk “for now”.
All of which suggests there’ll possible be no large Sonos launch in 2025, with the corporate’s final launch having been the Sonos Sub Gen 4 and Arc Extremely again in October 2024.