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Sonos abandons its streaming Apple TV rival even as it was in testing

The updated Sonos app for iOS that led to the cancellation of the Pinewood project

Troubled audio company Sonos has reportedly told its staff that work on its promised streaming video player is now canceled.

The player, codenamed Pinewood, was first reported on in 2023, when together with an AirPods Max-style rival, it was thought to be Sonos directly taking on Apple. Then, however, an update to its existing iPhone Sonos app was so faulty and so poorly received in early 2024, that the company ultimately saw its CEO resign.

Now according to The Verge, interim CEO Tom Conrad and his management team has held an all-staff call. In it, Conrad announced the cancellation of the Pinewood project and the redeployment of staff to other projects within the company.

The news comes despite the device having been in development since at least 2023. And despite it having already been in beta testing for some months.

It had been expected that Sonos would launch the Pinewood streamer during 2025, and its cancellation means the company has no major new releases for the year.

From May 2024 onwards, Sonos has been working to improve its updated iOS app. Originally, the app had been worked to be more streamlined and easy to use, but the new app was unstable and omitted significant features.

"I want to begin by personally apologizing for disappointing you," then-CEO Patrick Spence said. "There isn't an employee at Sonos who isn't pained by having let you down, and I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been and continues to be our number one priority."

Sonos had ended 2024, though, with the much more well-received Arc Ultra soundbar. But it appears to be concentrating now on regaining the customers it lost over the disastrous app launch.

5 Comments

kkqd1337 13 Years · 505 comments

Good lord. Who in Sonos thought a video streaming service was a good idea?!

4 Likes · 2 Dislikes
mpantone 19 Years · 2326 comments

kkqd1337 said:
Good lord. Who in Sonos thought a video streaming service was a good idea?!

Obviously Patrick Spence.

1 Like · 1 Dislike
9secondkox2 9 Years · 3283 comments

Sonos must have figured it wanted to stay in business and that it’s not able to take on a money pit hobby like streaming. 

If you’re not a studio or a streaming pioneer, then you’ll just get killed. Apple was throwing money into a black hole for a long time building (sparse) content and may still not be seeing much in the way of ROI. and licensing from studios and brokers ain’t cheap. Not to mention it would take forever for Sonos to establish enough credibility to get customers. They’d have to go big on acquisitions, marketing, and then give their service away initially to with tie-in deals on speakers, phone plans, etc. to generate a sense of something worthwhile being there. And even then it may simply not catch on. 

Sonos should just stick with what they are good at. They don’t have the ecosystem to support something like this. 

2 Likes · 1 Dislike
mpantone 19 Years · 2326 comments

If you’re not a studio or a streaming pioneer, then you’ll just get killed.

Sonos should just stick with what they are good at. They don’t have the ecosystem to support something like this. 

Yes, even Google/YouTube knows that creating original content is very challenging so YouTube is focused on being the hosting site not the content creator. Amazon has made more investments (like buying MGM) into owning and creating content.

Sonos does not that fat checkbook like Amazon though. Even streaming pioneer Netflix struggles mightily to compete in offering original content.

For most content television viewers are notoriously fickle.

I think Apple is starting to understand this and thus divert more focus into offerings like sports leagues (MLS in particular) because sports has an established and dedicated fan base and television audience. Soccer (a.k.a. football elsewhere) has larger worldwide audience anyhow than some niche drama series.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes
unbeliever2 13 Years · 98 comments

kkqd1337 said:
Good lord. Who in Sonos thought a video streaming service was a good idea?!

I don't see where the word "service" is ever mentioned in the original article. The article is about a streaming player *device*, not a service. Maybe they were also working on a service, but that's not mentioned here.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes