It was a stupid idea to start with, now the new management team at Sonos has abandoned their plan to jump into the streaming market with their development of an expensive streaming player killed off.
Called project Pinewood former management under the ill-fated leadership of Patrick Spence the now dumped CEO were convinced that they could enter the global streaming player market despite consumers able to buy a $99 4K capable Hubbl that streams both free to air and streamed content in Australia.
New CEO Tom Conrad has moved quickly to axe the ill-fated project that insiders were claiming was “ready to go”.
Spence was the same executive, who launched their new Ace headphones then screwed up the app that was needed to use them along with Sono’s speaker management.
According to the Verge the news was announced by the company’s leadership team during an all staff conference call last night.
Pinewood was set to be Sonos’ next major hardware launch with insiders telling ChannelNews that the company is set to focus on new speakers over other devices.
The team behind Pinewood will be reassigned to other projects as interim CEO Tom Conrad reprioritizes the company’s future roadmap and continues what he hopes will be a turnaround from a bruising 2024.
The problem for loss making Sonos is that sales of their current range of products is falling and there are no new products in the pipeline that can be launched this year.
The business which has been laying off staff is also running out current stock especially soundbars, backed by big discount programs as they look to realise cash, consolidate the business, some observers claim that Sonos management is potentially looking to stabilise the business for a possible sale.
“We don’t comment on our roadmap, but as has been previously announced we have a long-standing relationship with The Trade Desk and that relationship continues,” Sonos spokesperson Erin Pategas told the Verge.
The Trade Desk is the company behind the operating system that was working with Sonos in the development of the streaming box.
At this stage it’s not known whether Sonos has had to make a payment to Trade Desk following the cancellation of the device which was tipped to be priced at over A$600
New CEO Tom Conrad is a savvy business executive with a proven track record who appears to be now focused on consolidating the Company before any investments are made in new products said one insider.
The streaming device was given the go ahead by former Sonos CEO Patrick Spence, he is the same executive who approved he roll out of a totally flawed app at the beginning of this year that nobbled millions of Sonos sound systems users’ ability to use elements of their Sonos speakers.
