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Sonos, best known for its smart speakers and sound bars, has delayed its first TV set-top box and scaled back headphone shipments due to app issues.
These setbacks impact the firm’s efforts to recover and stabilize its product lineup. According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Sonos is still experiencing a major software crisis that is having a ripple effect on its hardware releases.
The Rise and Ongoing Challenges of Sonos
The company’s latest app update in April, intended to bring together a scattered streaming market, has caused widespread customer problems, such as connection issues and systems not being recognized.
What is happening at Sonos is hard to believe.
The company released a new app that is a big regression in reliability, usability and functionality vs the old one.
Sales are falling thanks to the new app.
There is no quick fix.
They want to re-release the old app… but cannot pic.twitter.com/3XrhhQRx0I
— Gergely Orosz (@GergelyOrosz) August 22, 2024
As a result of the app failure, Sonos has been forced to delay two major product launches and lay off employees to cope with mounting costs and lost sales.
One of the delayed products is a Roku-like TV set-top box codenamed Pinewood, Sonos’s first foray into this space, which has been pushed from January to March 2025. The other setback involves the underperformance of its new Ace headphones, unveiled in May 2024 for $449.
Sonos has cut Ace headphone production due to low demand. Initially, the company planned to manufacture 900,000 to 1 million units annually, but it has now reduced this target to just 90,000 to 100,000 units annually.
This drastic reduction reflects the product’s poor market performance, impacting Sonos’s stock price. The company’s stock has fallen 31.42% this year, compared to a 13% gain in the S&P 500 Index.
Will There Be a Way Out for Sonos?
Last year, Mark Gurman reported that Sonos was on track to make 2024 a milestone year with a slew of new products, including updated speakers, amplifiers, and soundbars.
As detailed in the report, Sonos also aimed to compete with industry giants like Bose and Apple in the headphone market and expand its product portfolio with new offerings.
However, Sonos’s app failures have derailed these plans, forcing the company to shift its focus from innovation to damage control. This has resulted in delayed product launches and uncertainty about its prospects.
I bought into Sonos thinking with a new setup and only two speakers maybe the app issues won't be so bad
It's so fucking bad.
It's wild that a premium company could destroy their entire product base overnight and still not have the most basic functions working months later
— Tanq (@ItsTanq) September 6, 2024
While Sonos CEO Patrick Spence addressed the app’s issues in a blog post on July 25, the damage had already been done, leading many to question the company’s leadership and decision-making.
