Sonos Stock Tumbles After A Big Kick In The Guts By Apple

Apple has in one foul swoop made life very uncomfortable for US sound brands Bose and Sonos by dropping their products them from their stores and the market has reacted by dumping Sonos shares.

Overnight Sonos shares plummeted after investors finally realised there is no Apple deal in the pipeline to save Sonos and sales of their products are set to be seriously impacted after the Company they tried to mimic when it came to branding gave them a real kick in the guts.

Sonos speakers, which were previously featured prominently on Apple’s website due to their AirPlay compatibility, were nowhere to be found yesterday at stores in Sydney. Also gone were Bose headphones.

Also gone were headphones and speakers from Logitech, which was down more than 6 percent on the news.

The move to dump has been coming for a while, now Apple is serious about getting a larger share of the audio market with a new range of sound gear which could include network speakers and headphones.

They already know which Apple consumers have downloaded the Sonos app with insiders telling ChannelNews that Apple iPhone owners make up more than 60% of Sonos sales.

The move is a for Sonos who are already on the outer with Google who Sonos is suing and in a questionable relationship with Amazon as both these two organisations strip share away from Sonos with their own network speakers that deliver superior 24bit sound to what the Sonos 16bit speakers deliver.

For Bose the move is a bitter blow as the Company has only recently decided to close down their own stores in an attempt to build sales online in direct competition with retailers such as JB Hi Fi, we also understand that The Good Guys is also looking to sell Bose audio products after also securing a deal to sell Sonos audio.

The removal of the products comes as Apple is preparing to launch a slew of new audio devices, Bloomberg reports, including a smaller version of its HomePod smart speaker as well as its first-ever over-ear headphones released under the Apple brand rather than Beats.

Apple has been pushing its homemade audio products in recent years, selling more than 65 million pairs of AirPods earbuds in 2019, and is forecast to sell more than 90 million this year — thanks in part to its upcoming move to not include complimentary wired headphones with the next generation of iPhones.

At 8.00am Sonos shares were down 7% to US$14.54 with them tipped to fall further during the next few days as investors come to realise that Apple is going to strip share from Sonos while making it difficult for Sonos to attract new customers to their aging audio system.

As a result of the removals, the Apple Store’s “headphones and speakers” product page now consists entirely of Apple’s own devices, with no rival manufacturers to be found.

ChannelNews understands that tens of thousands of Sonos and Bose headphones that were already in or scheduled to go into the Apple channel, are now heading back to the manufacturer with other retailers set to be offered the stock.

Bose and Logitech both confirmed to Bloomberg that Apple will no longer sell their audio products.

Apple is widely expected to hold a hardware event later this month, and rumors suggest it might happen on October 13th.

About Post Author

David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.