How Sonos rebooted itself

Today, I’m talking pinch Tom Conrad, the CEO of Sonos. Tom and I person known each different for a agelong clip — he was the main exertion serviceman of Pandora, VP of merchandise astatine Snap, and the main merchandise serviceman of Quibi. He was besides connected the committee astatine Sonos during its disastrous 2024 app redesign that threatened to clang the full brand.

I mean, travel on, you each perceive to the show. That is each the astir Decoder bait imaginable. I person been dying to person Tom connected the show to talk astir really the committee decided to move connected from erstwhile CEO Patrick Spence, really he diagnosed the issues wrong the company, and what decisions he made to hole them.

Those fixes progressive a batch of large changes: to the company’s structure, its merchandise lineup, and really it thinks astir itself and what its merchandise fundamentally is. That’s that caller platform, Sonos 27, which you’ll perceive Tom telephone a caller instauration for the institution that makes each Sonos merchandise activity amended arsenic portion of a system.

There’s a batch here, including really AI assistants tin activity crossed the system, the thought of having a mesh web of small computers successful your location disguised arsenic speakers, and of course, the testy narration betwixt Sonos and Google, which intends Google’s Gemini adjunct isn’t disposable connected Sonos devices.

Oh, and of people we sewage into the weeds astir smart location standards, because I americium a smart location nerd and simply cannot thief myself. But to his credit, Tom was consenting to nerd retired pinch me, and I deliberation this speech is beautiful nosy because of it.

Okay: Sonos CEO Tom Conrad. Here we go.

This question and reply has been lightly edited for magnitude and clarity.

Tom Conrad, you’re the CEO of Sonos. Welcome to Decoder.

Thank you. As they say, it’s truthful awesome to beryllium here.

I americium conscionable going to say, finally, I person been asking you to beryllium connected the show for astatine slightest a year, if not before. I deliberation the first clip I met you was successful the backmost of a car astatine CES erstwhile you were astatine Pandora.

Sounds right.

One 100 years ago.

One 100 years ago. We were children.

[Laughs] We were small babies. That car was driven by a quality driver. That’s really acold backmost it was.

That’s right.

And past you took a move done Quibi. You and I talked done that, and now you’re astatine Sonos. As you know, I’m a immense instrumentality of Sonos. We had your predecessor, Patrick Spence, on the show a bunch of times.

Many things person happened, truthful I conscionable want to commencement astatine the very opening of this. You’re astir a twelvemonth into being the imperishable CEO of Sonos. You person a bunch of news to announce. Just show america what you deliberation Sonos is today. What is your conception of this company?

When I came successful the door, 1 of my earliest observations was that the institution behaved for illustration it was 100 percent hardware, but we’re really 100 percent hardware and 100 percent software. And if you get either 1 of those moreover a small spot wrong, the effect is tremendous.

So really does that show up really day-to-day? It was astir returning the institution to the thought that Sonos doesn’t make these individual products, but we really make 1 point — we make the Sonos system. It each has to bent together successful a cohesive, interesting, and valuable way, aliases we’re conscionable not doing the work.

There’s been a bunch of basal blocking and tackling, of course, some operationally and successful the activity that we’re doing successful the merchandise family. But astatine the highest level, returning the institution to the thought that we are a strategy for audio successful the location has been the highest-level mantra.

When you opportunity travel into the company, do you mean arsenic a committee personnel aliases arsenic the CEO?

I mean, let’s commencement the starter pistol successful January of 2025, 18 months ago, erstwhile I stepped successful first arsenic interim CEO and past was fortunate capable six months later to beryllium asked to return the occupation much permanently.

The logic I asked that mobility is that you evidently person 2 different views of the institution successful different roles. We did person erstwhile CEO Patrick Spence connected respective occasions, and he said thing very akin to maine erstwhile he first took complete — that Sonos was stuck successful its ways. It was really focused connected very, very slow iterations of hardware.

He tried very difficult to push the metabolism of the institution to beryllium overmuch faster, and he talked astir that very openly pinch me. That led yet to what I deliberation is simply a infinitesimal of existent crisis: the app launch. It was a disaster. The strategy stopped working. That’s erstwhile you came successful to correct the ship.

Tell maine astir that gap. You came in, and you said this institution thinks it’s a hardware company. That’s what your predecessor had been saying, but it went sideways successful big, meaningful ways. Tell maine astir that infinitesimal and why you deliberation it was the aforesaid conception moreover erstwhile you came in.

So arsenic you describe, I’ve been progressive pinch the institution going backmost almost 20 years. We brought Pandora to Sonos successful 2007, I think, and I was capable to get to cognize the institution arsenic a partner earlier I sewage to cognize it arsenic a committee member. I came onto the committee successful 2016 correct arsenic Patrick became CEO. So from the vantage constituent of a committee member, I sewage to participate successful Patrick’s chapter.

I conjecture the measurement I would qualify his high-order reasoning astir the institution successful those early days was that, arsenic you described, he wanted to move the institution into a merchandise execution instrumentality pinch an accent connected hardware products. We telephone them NPIs, aliases caller merchandise introductions.

In the section earlier him, it was sometimes years betwixt caller Sonos products. Spence said, “Look, we’re going to make a institution that knows really to vessel a mates of awesome caller products a year.” And he did that. I mean, the institution has reliably shipped a mates of awesome products, hardware products, each year, for adjacent to a decade now.

Sometimes, erstwhile you energize an statement astir an idea, location are unintended consequences. I deliberation 1 unintended consequence of that framing was that the institution became very focused connected the individual products, 1 astatine a time. Even arsenic a committee member, I received Roam arsenic a portable speaker pinch a definite magnitude of artillery life, waterproofing, and Bluetooth connectivity. I didn’t really deliberation astir it arsenic a personnel of the Sonos system.

Even pinch the package activity that we did, and pinch each merchandise that we make, location is simply a tremendous magnitude of package effort and invention that goes into them. But moreover the package that we made was very focused connected the individual NPIs. “What tin we do successful package to differentiate Move 2 from different speakers successful that category?”

What was difficult to do, and what was difficult to prioritize successful the company, was horizontal slices of package experiences that benefited each of the platform. So, successful a way, I deliberation immoderate of that indebtedness accumulated, and the institution thought that the antidote was to recreate the app experience. And arsenic you know, we made a bunch of mistakes astatine that moment.

I’m really proud of the truth that I deliberation we’re good beyond that section now, but we could person been overmuch much thoughtful astir really we qualified that merchandise successful the existent world. We could person been overmuch much thoughtful astir really we rolled it retired to customers. We could have, candidly, I think, examined the original impetus successful the first place. It was very Sonos-motivated. We wanted to put the app connected a modern architecture to make america much nimble.

In my section astatine Sonos, I’m really trying to bring it each backmost to really we tin attraction connected the customer first. I’m truthful inspired by talking to group connected societal media and successful my inbox, and group successful the industry, for illustration you, astir really we show up and lick the existent problems that are happening successful existent households. I’m truthful excited astir the things we’re going to talk to you astir coming because I deliberation they’re really an reply to galore of those questions.

If you’re a listener, you cognize I’m acquainted pinch Tom. The man’s connected Threads doing customer support each day. And actually, I should not return advantage of this. I clasp myself backmost from asking you for nonstop customer support each the time.

Anytime. The measurement that you tin show it’s really maine and not our crackerjack societal squad is that I often will fto a Thread dice earlier I should aliases neglect to travel up pinch someone. So if we were executing perfectly connected that, you would cognize it was clone Tom, but it’s existent Tom, and I do it erstwhile I can, but sometimes imperfectly.

At slightest it’s not an AI avatar Tom. That’s erstwhile we cognize it’s going to spell sideways.

[Laughs] That’s right.

I cognize you’re a Decoder fan, truthful I’m going to make you beryllium successful this for conscionable 1 much infinitesimal because I find each of this to beryllium really fascinating. The app shipped, and the feedback was instantly and intensely negative. Many, galore things were broken. Speakers weren’t moving astatine weddings. This is simply a clip of monolithic crisis.

The institution goes to resoluteness it, but past you’re connected the board, and it’s clear that there’s going to beryllium a activity transition, that Patrick needs to go, and we request a caller CEO. You’re going to beryllium the interim CEO.

Tell america astir that process. Very, very fewer group will ever beryllium successful that benignant of process aliases get penetration into that process. What happened? What were the steps?

Well, I conjecture you commencement by saying that the past point arsenic a committee that you want to do is to region a CEO, peculiarly 1 who had arsenic galore successes arsenic Patrick had. But I deliberation arsenic we looked astatine the company’s advancement recovering from the app crisis, and frankly the tenor of the speech wrong the company, we conscionable decided that for this benignant of step-function betterment we needed connected immoderate of these dimensions, we had to make immoderate changes successful leadership, and that included a CEO change.

It was a chaotic acquisition for maine because, I’ll show you, astatine nary constituent successful the decade starring up to that time successful January did I ideate that I mightiness extremity up the CEO of Sonos. But successful the process, the committee asked if I’d beryllium consenting to measurement successful connected an interim basis, and it was an easy yes for me. It’s a cliché, but I’m a customer, and I emotion this product. There was a Sonos Move successful the room erstwhile my girl was born. You talked astir weddings. I was watching friends and colleagues connected the internet, disappointment by their experience. I wanted to travel successful and hole it. Of course, arsenic a committee member, I felt immoderate existent culpability successful it. So [I was] thrilled astatine the chance to travel in.

When you’re an interim CEO, the duty is really to support the wheels on. The duty astatine Sonos specifically was to correct the ship. So during the play erstwhile the committee was doing their broad hunt for the personification that they would yet determine was the correct prime for the company, it was really easy for maine to show up and conscionable do that difficult activity of trying to get the institution backmost connected track.

While I ne'er imagined that I would onshore successful this seat, I consciousness truthful blessed that it happened. I do emotion this occupation and proceed to emotion the institution and the team, and I’m truthful excited astir the things we’re doing for our customers.

Very fewer group are going to get an question and reply to go the CEO of Sonos. I ideate astatine immoderate constituent you went from being the interim CEO to wanting to go the imperishable CEO. What was that process like? Did you constitute a memo? Was location a transportation deck? What were the steps?

Yeah, truthful location were a mates of transportation moments that the committee asked me, wholly reasonably, to prosecute successful the process of applying for the occupation successful the aforesaid measurement that each of the different talented candidates that they said to engaged. And truthful I took a characteristic test.

Wait, you did?

Yeah.

With the letters?

Oh, yeah.

Like an ENTJ aliases whatever?

Oh, yeah. One of the missive things, sure. They wanted to cognize what they were getting.

Do they cognize that that is fundamentally conscionable for illustration astrology? Someone should show them.

You cognize what? Yep, yep. I presented my imagination for the institution much than once, and I had the unthinkable advantage of being wrong the 4 walls of the institution and profoundly knowing what was moving and what wasn’t, and the things that we needed to do to get to this adjacent chapter. It was a play of intense, aggravated activity for maine and everybody astir maine astatine the company, and much than a small worry astir really it was going to move out.

It was truthful fun, though, to get the telephone and past to conscionable instantly beryllium capable to pivot astatine slightest a fraction of the activity from the wholly tactical to the overmuch much strategic, to statesman to talk astir what benignant of institution we are going to build together successful this adjacent chapter.

When it was announced that you would go the imperishable CEO, moreover erstwhile you were the interim CEO, my guidance was, “Oh, this makes sense.” To usage a shot analogy, shot teams prosecute protect caput coaches and violative caput coaches, and they travel from 1 broadside of the shot aliases the other. It was conscionable obvious: “Oh, this institution needs a package CEO, and Tom is simply a package guy.”

You’re describing a business wherever evidently it’s both. You’ve sewage hardware and package together, but that was the ray that went disconnected successful my caput — “Oh, this is simply a package personification coming successful to hole a large package problem.” Is that really you saw it initially?

Yeah, my profession started pinch trading individual computers successful 1986 aliases something, astatine the original Micro Center. If you’ve ever been to a Micro Center, it’s 1 of the fewer remaining big-box retailers for computers. So astatine the original Micro Center successful Columbus, Ohio, astatine 16 years old, I walked into the CEO’s agency and said, “I want to activity here.” So from my earliest days, I was sitting pinch early adopters of individual computers and watching their struggles to understand the exertion and put it to usage successful their lives.

I became an technologist and a merchandise designer retired of a desire to thief group study to usage these products. And that’s really what’s motivated maine done my full career: really do I thief teams make awesome experiences? So while it’s existent that I’m a package person, 35 years successful the business, my personality really is arsenic a merchandise designer. And I’d for illustration to deliberation that the committee imagined that, yes, they needed a package person, but they needed personification who could holistically look astatine the opportunity crossed hardware and package and thief the squad get there.

You look to beryllium done it now. There’s a large stack of announcements here, including MCP integration. I’ve sewage a batch of questions astir each that.

When you became the imperishable CEO 18 months ago, you said you instantly shifted strategy. What brought that into attraction for you? “Oh, this is really a package level pinch hardware components”? Was that instinct? Was it research? Was it, “I’m getting done this app process, and that is becoming revealed to me”? How did that work?

I deliberation by disposition I’m a reasonably right-brained person, and I person this intuitive emotion — creative, aliases immoderate the words are, not arsenic quantitative. But my first occupation retired of assemblage was astatine Apple, and I deliberation moreover from the early days erstwhile I was there, we talked astir the intersection of the arts and humanities and the sciences.

I deliberation 1 instruction of my profession has been that you really do person an responsibility to bring some a quant and a qual appraisal to astir things that walk your desk. So the improvement of our strategy was very overmuch for illustration that. Yes, location was an intuitive consciousness astir what the correct reply for Sonos was that was built up from my acquisition arsenic a customer by watching our customers and talking to them done the years. A portion of that is simply a position astir wherever the puck is going, of course.

But I do person entree to piles and piles and piles of information astir really our products behave successful the existent world, really our customers interact pinch them, what they use, what they don’t use, and tons of group astir maine successful the statement who tin bring that quantitative framing. I deliberation 1 advantage I had complete different CEO candidates was that I could bring immoderate of that horsepower to carnivore connected the communicative that I shared pinch the committee astir my imagination for the early of the company.

You’ve made immoderate changes. It’s clip for the Decoder questions. You person restructured the company. There person been a fewer rounds of layoffs. How large is Sonos today?

We’re astir 1,500 people.

And really is that structured?

So the institution that I stepped into was divided into business units. We had a squad that was focused connected home. We had a squad that was focused connected the master opportunity, a squad that was focused connected location theater, and truthful on. While there’s thing to beryllium said for P&L responsibilities, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, there’s thing to beryllium said for that attack astatine a definite scale. I deliberation that my appraisal was that we were sub-scale for the inefficiencies that creep in. We person the almost guaranteed plagiarism of effort crossed the silos.

What’s more, if you ideate that the merchandise is really the system, the thought that your portables squad sits acold distant from your location theatre team, and sits acold distant from your plugged-in speakers team, is almost surely going to tally antagonistic to the benignant of advancement that you’re trying to motivate. And truthful very quickly, wrong 3 weeks of my arrival, we reorganized the institution into a functional model.

So my activity squad today, of course, has a finance organization, a ineligible organization, a income organization, and a trading organization. But the merchandise squad now shows up arsenic represented by hardware, software, and world proviso concatenation operations, truthful leaders crossed each of those things. And what that allows america to do is to combine cross-functional teams, aliases matrix-style teams, to put successful the initiatives that are of the highest privilege to our customers and to the business astatine immoderate fixed moment. And we tin flex that up and down and broadside to broadside arsenic our needs change.

We might, for an interval, beryllium very focused connected this portion of the portfolio complete here, and past we mightiness beryllium capable to move to focusing connected a different area of the portfolio. No 1 has to get a caller boss, and group tin fluidly move from these things and get caller opportunities to learn. It conscionable strikes maine arsenic a overmuch much due organizational building for our existent stage.

You’re describing the displacement from a divisional building to a vastly much functional structure.

Yes.

That’s Apple, right?

Yep, sure.

Everyone comes up, and there’s 1 large merchandise meeting.

You evidently make a batch of software. I’ve described you arsenic a package CEO. It seems for illustration the package manufacture is successful a infinitesimal of existential situation astir really package is made, astir what a merchandise head versus an technologist versus a designer do. Are you still successful the classical structures of building software? Or has AI wholly upended what you’re doing?

No, we’re arsenic heavy successful this arsenic anyone. What’s been really nosy for maine complete the people of the past twelvemonth is to watch the package engineering squad spell from thoughtful skepticism to beautiful heavy embrace, if I’m honest. Some of that is connected the backmost of conscionable really dramatically the devices person evolved complete the people of the past 12 months, certainly.

I deliberation almost everyone successful the manufacture went location astatine the holidays astatine the tail extremity of 2025, coming into 2026, and came backmost conscionable gobsmacked by really overmuch advancement the frontier labs were making connected agentic coding, and it’s been a existent accelerant for us. As analyzable arsenic this modulation is, I’m really excited astir being capable to thief our engineers navigate what’s a beautiful basal oversea alteration successful the measurement that this benignant of infrastructure gets built, and it’s nosy to get to beryllium a portion of that astatine this moment.

Did you break up the classical PM, designer, and technologist triad? Or is that still the halfway building block?

We still person each three, but it blurs peculiarly arsenic the designers and the merchandise managers tin beryllium prototypers astatine a really precocious level pinch unthinkable efficiency. It’s breathtaking to spot really quickly they tin pass their ideas now successful a mean that conscionable didn’t beryllium astatine each for them a twelvemonth ago.

We’re astatine the turn, right? You came in, you restructured the company, you identified a caller thesis for the company. Today you’re present to talk astir each the caller news. Do you deliberation you’re done it? Do you deliberation the existing customers person forgiven you for the app mess? Do you deliberation the marque has been restored?

Yeah, arsenic we’ve been saying, I deliberation that there’s the quant and there’s the qual. The quant is greenish crossed the board. Performance, reliability, customer attraction interactions, societal tone, NPS — these things are each restored to levels that we enjoyed earlier immoderate of that happened.

On the qualitative side, I emotion the truth that I tin show up connected Reddit aliases connected societal media broadly and prosecute pinch our customers and person a constructive speech astir things that they’re excited that we’re doing, and things wherever we’re still disappointing an individual customer connected immoderate dimension.

I deliberation that astatine immoderate level, possibly this crippled is ne'er over; you’re conscionable ever trying to polish disconnected the remaining unsmooth edges of everything that you do. So I person a existent critic’s oculus erstwhile I look astatine the activity that we do, and if I ever fto that slip, a customer will punctual maine of wherever the activity remains. And so, yes, I deliberation successful each measurable measurement it’s down us, but it’s a “never forget” section for the company.

That brings maine to the different Decoder question: really do you make decisions? What’s your framework?

Well, I don’t deliberation you bring conscionable 1 model to each decision. So we talk about, for example, merchandise decisions. As an thought moves done its lifecycle from its days arsenic an early small sapling that you person to attraction and thin to, done last wide accumulation for a hardware object, and retired into the channels, I deliberation really you deliberation astir [each of those] decisions is different.

So successful the earliest days, I really tried to protect the productivity of the institution and to not fto the antibodies of uncertainty and critique erode an thought earlier it’s had a chance to definitive itself successful a measurement that anybody could get excited about. That intends creating room for risk-taking, creativity, qualitative assessment, and prototyping earlier you get to the specifications of the business lawsuit and the difficult trade-offs that you make connected a travel from an thought to thing you tin really ship.

But of course, arsenic the programs rotation on and they return connected much and much financial finance and organizational risk, arsenic much and much group aggregate into the product, you become, I think, conscionable people overmuch much quantitative successful your study of the decisions. And you inquire the teams to bring a really thoughtful, elaborate explanation of the puts and takes and the risks associated pinch it, and you usage that to thief you make your decisions.

But possibly connected apical of each of that, you conscionable person to prosecute awesome people. I mean, you conscionable do, and you person to put them connected teams that are an due size for the task astatine hand. I deliberation it’s going to beryllium very, very difficult for immoderate CEO aliases immoderate activity squad to make awesome decisions if the group who aren’t bringing the ideas themselves aren’t great. So I suppose it starts pinch the correct group successful the seats.

The logic I inquire that mobility successful that measurement is that, I think, the determination you made that is astir emblematic to maine of changing from a divisional building pinch individual P&Ls to a much functional structure, and reasoning astir the level arsenic a whole, was the determination to termination a merchandise that I judge was called Pinewood. It was a set-top container that was going to merge each the streaming services. This was well reported by erstwhile Verge newsman Chris Welch, who’s now astatine Bloomberg.

The point that really struck maine astir that was if you had a section that was focused connected soundbars, the only spot that section could spell was to compete pinch Roku. And each the reporting that we had earlier suggested that the soundbar section was increasing because the connect complaint for soundbars pinch caller TVs is 100 percent. Everyone knows the speakers successful their TVs are bad.

It’s a awesome business, and we’re for judge the champion merchandise successful the category.

So if you want to grow, which is the large thing, you’re going to beryllium like, “How do we grow? And you say, “Well, I sewage to hit Roku.” And past now you’re conscionable disconnected doing that. You came in, and you conscionable ended that, and I thought, “Oh, this is not conscionable a determination to extremity a merchandise line; this is besides a determination astir the strategy of the company. Because if you’re going to spell compete pinch Roku, you’ve sewage to beryllium a different company.” That’s my position of it. Is that really you saw it?

Like truthful galore things, these decisions do person much than 1 magnitude that you evaluate. A large portion of that decision, candidly, was that we were dispersed excessively bladed crossed excessively galore things, and I didn’t judge that we could beryllium exceptional astatine each of them. I wanted to return america to attraction connected the point that allows america to beryllium astir differentiated successful the competitory set, and that’s the unthinkable systemness of the product, the audio acquisition that we tin deliver, and attending to what, astatine the time, was a very agelong database of things that our customers were explicitly asking america for.

I deliberation if we were, putatively, really moving connected a set-top container astatine that moment, different point that I mightiness person wondered astir was whether our desire to make this peculiar merchandise came from our customer aliases did it travel from immoderate benignant of internally originated consciousness of business opportunity? And I deliberation companies get successful a batch of problem erstwhile the point that comes first is the exemplary and the point that comes 2nd is the product.

I surely consciousness a consciousness of responsibility to perpetually beryllium evaluating caller business opportunities for the company, caller business models for the company, sure. But I want them to ever commencement from a spot of what we really spot successful the marketplace from customers. I’m not judge that they were saying we want a high-end streaming container that is someway the emotion kid of an Apple TV and a Roku.

Although that emotion child… I would beryllium very worried astir that emotion child. Why does this merchandise person 200GB of retention for nary identifiable reason, but besides shows maine ads astatine each times? We’ll group that aside.

I inquire that because I want to talk to you astir each the news here. The news present is simply a bunch of large bets. You’ve sewage Sonos 27. That is the caller sanction of what you were calling an audio operating strategy that has thing successful it called Sonos Fabric.

Boy, I cognize you cognize me. I’m fresh to spell connected each these names and each these ideas. In there, somewhere, is MCP support. There’s a large thought astir assistants that I want to talk about. You’re cashing immoderate chips, right?

Yeah.

You’re saying, ”Okay, here’s a large caller idea. Trust us. We’re going to get it correct this time.” You’re fresh for it.

Yeah, I consciousness very ready. We’ve spent the past twelvemonth building the caller products that show the communicative of this adjacent section of the company. We’re really excited, not conscionable astir their capabilities, but really we’re going to stock them pinch the world and really we’re going to participate a play of co-creation pinch our customers.

We’ve precocious done that pinch immoderate of the app enhancements that we’ve been rolling out. We’ve rolled retired a system that allows our customers to opt into them explicitly and talk to america astir what they spot successful their ain homes, and it’s conscionable been specified a delightful section of engagement pinch the organization that I deliberation we really lacked for a while. So yeah, I consciousness very ready.

Can I talk astir it?

Yeah, let’s get into it. Sonos 27 and Sonos Fabric, what are these things? Explain to group what’s going connected here.

So 100 percent hardware, 100 percent software. For 20 years, we’ve fixed each of our hardware objects names: Roam, Arc, Beam, Ace, Era. But we’ve ne'er named the package level — the point that takes these collections of products and creates a accordant whole. So successful immoderate ways, the large news that we’re sharing correct now is that the package level has a sanction called Sonos 27, and it has a bunch of promises that it makes to customers successful its nuts and bolts.

It’s an ecosystem level that allows a immense heterogeneous world of services to travel together successful your home. It’s a strategy that has a heavy technological furniture that tunes the audio for each portion of your family done a strategy we telephone Trueplay. It’s fundamentally built connected a benignant of cloth that brings each of the products together into a cohesive whole. And architecturally, it’s 1 of the things that’s really, really unsocial astir what we’re doing.

Our products successful your location really find each different connected the section web and create thing that is genuinely wherever the full is greater than the sum of the parts. And it’s what unlocks truthful overmuch of the magical experiences that we’ve delivered done the years. We’re astir to denote immoderate breathtaking caller capabilities for Sonos Fabric and constituent a vector into the early of much to come.

Finally, we person these power and engagement services: app, voice, web. You mentioned MCP, which is simply a caller magnitude that we’re adding. We besides person an wholly caller sound adjunct experience. And truthful we’re doing each of that crossed the package ecosystem, and we’re moreover giving a small spot of a preview of a capacity that we’re calling Custom Agents, which is multi-tenancy wrong of the level to let modern sound assistants to unrecorded broadside by broadside and interact pinch 1 different connected the platform.

So we’re doing each of that, and we person immoderate awesome caller hardware too. We’ve sewage a marque caller astonishing soundbar and an astonishing group of caller headphones.

The Beam Ultra is the caller soundbar, and I deliberation it’s 7.1.2.

Yep.

This is very nerdy, but to maine it represents the truth that Atmos is wholly mainstream now astatine this value point.

Yeah, totally.

That mightiness beryllium an wholly different location theatre podcast.

I can’t hold for you to perceive it, honestly. Obviously, I’m biased and see the source, but it sounds amazing. People who person heard it conscionable can’t extremity talking astir really awesome this small soundbar sounds.

Honestly, I should discontinue doing this and conscionable do location theatre podcasts. Where does my bosom genuinely lie? It’s that. It’s conscionable doing that.

[Laughs] I’m down. Anytime.

We should do it.

If you request a co-host, we should do it.

Tell maine astir the thought of naming the operating strategy Sonos 27. It’s evidently the mediate of 2026. It evidently tracks Apple’s naming scheme. This very overmuch implies there’ll beryllium a Sonos 28 1 twelvemonth from now, successful August of 2027.

It does. I deliberation from the opening we knew that we wanted to springiness it a name, and we knew that we wanted the sanction to beryllium capable to definitive this thought that Sonos does evolve. And for many, galore years, that improvement was to the awesome use of our customers. We had lossless audio for Apple. We had high-fidelity audio for Spotify. We had AirPlay. We had Alexa.

Through the years, we’ve conscionable complete and complete and complete again expanded the capacity of the products that were already successful our customers’ homes, and we didn’t person a measurement of talking astir it astatine all. So we wanted to springiness it a name. We wanted group to understand that it improved complete time.

So arsenic we started reasoning about, “Well, really do you really do that?” I mean, the first point they came to was like, “Gosh, we already person ‘OS’ correct successful the sanction of the company.” So to effort to marque immoderate wholly caller point felt for illustration a self-own, and truthful we beautiful quickly reverted to this thought that the merchandise is 100 percent hardware and 100 percent software. The merchandise is Sonos, not Arc. Maybe the OS2 is called Sonos.

And past it’s like, “Well, what companion moniker tin we springiness it to thrust that thought home?” Obviously we talked astir type numbers and immoderate number of different things, but we decided that we’d for illustration to return advantage of this. Once a year, we’ll guidelines up successful beforehand of our assemblage and show them astir really the level is evolving, and utilizing the twelvemonth arsenic a descriptor for that was a amended system than almost thing other that was disposable to us.

Those package cycles, yearly large releases… Apple is fundamentally the only institution that sticks to it. Even if it doesn’t do it, it announces each the features, and past they slow dribble them retired complete the people of the twelvemonth arsenic they travel into focus.

Again, I person a batch of questions astir the quality of package improvement successful 2027, but the thought that there’s 1 monolithic merchandise erstwhile a twelvemonth — the industry’s gotten distant from that. Is that your idea, aliases are you going to do thing different?

No, no, no. Fortunately, the manufacture has gotten distant from that, and our volition is to person a infinitesimal wherever we tin show the communicative of the operating strategy roadmap for the adjacent six aliases 10 months. As you’ll see, moreover successful this moment, the things that we’re announcing — galore of them will beryllium disposable successful what we’re calling early access, which is the chance for america to put them retired into the merchandise arsenic opt-ins for our customers. That way, we tin do the position collecting, real-world information collecting benignant of work. All of these products will proceed to germinate done the year.

Frankly, I deliberation arsenic we spell into the event, we will talk astir each of this. I cognize that I’m going to get questions from customers and observers like, “What astir this feature?” I deliberation really the reply is conscionable going to beryllium like, “We cognize the stuff.” There’s very small that you tin say, “Hey, personification should do this,” that isn’t connected our list.

So to beryllium capable to say, “Look, portion of what we’re communicating pinch the 27 of it each is that this worldly will travel successful 2027, and if it doesn’t, it’ll travel successful 2028 aliases beyond.”

One of the large ideas present is evidently that this is an operating strategy that addresses a bunch of hardware successful your home. That point mostly looks for illustration speakers, but immoderate of it is connected to your TVs. You’ve sewage bid and control. You’ve sewage different assistants, which I want to talk about, and that operating strategy should summation much capabilities complete time.

What does the acold type of that look like? Is it conscionable that location will beryllium an ambient adjunct successful your location that is addressing the cloth done MCP? Is it that you’ll interoperate pinch different speakers that mightiness beryllium successful the house? What does the biggest imagination of this look like?

I mean, I deliberation successful immoderate ways you’ll person to enactment tuned to spot wherever we return this, but I’ll commencement pinch this: I deliberation that each location deserves this infrastructure. I deliberation sound is an unthinkable temper stabilizer, if you like. Take the audio way retired of your favourite movie aliases tv show, and truthful overmuch of the life comes retired of it. And I deliberation having an out-loud audio acquisition successful your location is thing that everybody should enjoy. So portion of the large image is we want to dispersed this acold and wide and make it accessible to everyone.

A moving joke astir the first procreation of assistants is that they’ve ended up being for timers. I deliberation you really do, erstwhile you’re building retired this adjacent procreation of voice-centric experiences, person to look astatine not conscionable what the exertion tin do, but besides what the customer wants. And 1 of the caller capabilities successful Sonos 27 is our caller sound assistant.

Our sound adjunct is built connected modern generative technology, but it’s really inspired by what group show america that they for illustration to spot successful the home. I’ll show you, the slayer app of the adjunct is that they conscionable want to beryllium capable to talk to it for illustration a normal person, afloat stop. With the first-generation assistants, you conscionable had to conjecture what to opportunity each time, and moreover past possibly it took 2 aliases 3 attempts to get there.

It’s specified a crippled changer to beryllium capable to say, “Play that medium I loved successful college, the 1 pinch the Cocteau Twins singer. I deliberation the opus ended up arsenic the taxable opus for that show. It was connected Fox. It was astir the curmudgeonly Doctor House… It’s ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack.”

It is. It is. So that’s occupation one, if you like. The first-generation assistants didn’t do it astatine all. Sonos Voice successful the caller OS is exceptional astatine this. So that’s gathering the customer wherever they are.

What other should they say? Well, they opportunity a small spot astir what I would telephone temper and ambiance. So lighting. Let’s bring lighting into the situation truthful that you tin definitive a segment done some sound and light.

My woman and I are perpetually settling small bets successful the kitchen: “What was this point called? Who is that actor?” They do want broad world knowledge. They want to get an reply to the kid’s homework duty aliases whatever, and truthful these agents do request to beryllium capable to manus disconnected to broad frontier models to get perspectives connected the world.

In immoderate instances, those perspectives let them to usage the frontier exemplary to manipulate the audio situation to play immoderate euphony that group are talking astir connected TikTok and prime immoderate worldly that sounds for illustration the shoegaze euphony that I liked erstwhile I was successful college. We tin leverage the powerfulness of a frontier exemplary to understand what’s being talked astir connected TikTok to benignant that against my philharmonic preferences, and present it.

I conjecture while we’re enumerating what I deliberation a modern sound adjunct has to do, it has to beryllium fast, it has to beryllium reliable, and it has to beryllium responsible and affordable to run. I do deliberation that customers want this arsenic a basal capacity of a merchandise for illustration Sonos, and we built an architecture that allows america to present it to each 1 of our customers arsenic well.

There’s a batch of large Decoder, large Verge ideas successful each of there, each the measurement down to wherever does the compute live? Where is the machine successful your location expected to be? You’re describing a batch of bid and control. There’s integration pinch smart location stuff. I deliberation it’s a Lutron business you person now.

That’s right.

But there’s an infinite number of smart ray switches that mightiness thief you power your lighting. Your institution is portion of the Matter standard, but you don’t really alteration Matter connected Sonos speakers. I deliberation our reporting from the awesome Jenn Tuohy, arsenic our smart location reporter, has suggested that you don’t deliberation it’s ready.

This is simply a batch of stacked problems. I’m conscionable going to publication your property merchandise to you. It says, “Sonos 27 MCP allows you to link immoderate extracurricular AI adjunct aliases supplier to your system, including ChatGPT.”

Well, I’m a customer, and I’ll show you that the 1 that I want to usage is Gemini for Home, Google’s assistant, and that’s been surgery connected Sonos for ages because of an ongoing lawsuit. Is that fixed? Is Google connected your list? Because there’s a batch of competitory magnitude here.

So successful galore ways we person a beardown narration pinch Google to this day, contempt the lawsuit. YouTube Music is 1 of the most-listened-to euphony services connected the platform. We do person a agelong history of a first-generation Google Assistant connected galore of our products. We’d emotion to proceed to activity pinch them connected each of these things, and those conversations continue.

I conjecture I’m conscionable going to push connected this thought of connecting immoderate AI adjunct aliases agent. There are 2 large ones. There’s Alexa, and there’s Google. You mightiness beryllium successful 3rd place. Siri exists. Those are the ones, right? Maybe there’s going to beryllium a ChatGPT merchandise successful the future.

Well, listen. I want to tease isolated 2 different things.

Sure.

Let’s talk astir bid and power of the Sonos strategy done outer agentic interfaces, conscionable to usage each buzzword. What I really mean is that we deliberation there’s a batch of inferior successful showing up wrong of ChatGPT connected the web, connected your phone, connected the desktop successful the aforesaid measurement that Slack aliases your almanac shows up successful those environments.

So pinch Sonos 27 MCP, we’ll show up successful the directory of connectable services successful each of those environments: successful Gemini, successful Claude, successful ChatGPT, successful Grok. By connecting that instrumentality into your experience, nevertheless you entree it, you’ll beryllium capable to summon Sonos. So possibly you’re moving connected something, and you want immoderate euphony to play; you tin conscionable show Claude to make it play aliases conscionable show Gemini to make it play from the desktop aliases mobile aboveground that you’re sitting successful beforehand of.

That’s a beautiful powerful building artifact arsenic we spot these OpenClaw-style agentic, proactive, asynchronous agents evolve. Now they person entree to Sonos successful a supportable way. There’s been a bunch of hack MCPs and CLIs for Sonos around, and a batch of reporting astir really they’re among the astir utilized examples for these things. We’re excited to officially support specified a thing. As overmuch arsenic nosy it is to spot the mainstream usage cases, I’m very excited to spot what hobbyists are going to do pinch Sonos MCP.

So let’s now talk astir on-device, though. So we’ve been moving intimately pinch Amazon for immoderate clip to bring Alexa Plus to our platform. That activity continues. I’m excited astir it. We don’t person thing to denote today, but we’ve had a agelong and really successful narration pinch Amazon done the years. Panos was connected the committee pinch maine for galore of our years astatine Sonos.

That’s right, that’s right. He’s a friend of the show.

Yes. Panos and I are buds.

But 1 point we’ve demonstrated is thing we telephone Sonos Custom Agents, which lets you return immoderate of these conclusion engines — the Anthropic engine, the OpenAI engine, the Gemini engine, the Grok motor — and invoke it from Sonos. You’ll beryllium capable to springiness it a unsocial voice, springiness it a name, and springiness it a discourse that has it show up successful a peculiar way.

So ideate that you’d for illustration to person a characteristic that lives wrong of Sonos, and it’s the John Cusack characteristic from High Fidelity, an opinionated grounds shop geek who is willing successful subtly shading your perspectives successful music, but besides making recommendations.

You’ll beryllium capable to spell successful and group up a civilization supplier successful Sonos that says, “Let’s usage OpenAI inference. Let’s usage this sound I pick, and let’s springiness it this personality, and let’s person it unrecorded alongside an supplier that’s powered by Anthropic conclusion that is going to springiness maine proposal connected cooking. And let’s do different 1 that is only willing successful connecting maine pinch opportunities to spot unrecorded music.”

All of these devices will beryllium capable to show up wrong of Sonos, invoked by the sanction you springiness it, like, “Hey, Sonos, link maine to the curator,” and talk to you only astir that topic, person a constituent of view, and beryllium capable to entree the Sonos discourse truthful that they tin manus disconnected from 1 to the other.

It’s ace fun. It’s ace creative. It lets our customers go participants successful the Sonos platform. We’re conscionable showing it disconnected arsenic a exertion preview because location are still a batch of specifications to activity retired here, but it’s a batch of nosy to play pinch successful the lab.

Let maine bring immoderate of these ideas together. There’s the thought that there’s outer bid and control. I person an Echo Dot, and I say, “Turn connected the Sonos,” and it conscionable does that.

Then there’s the thought that there’s the adjunct that lives connected your instrumentality that is either the Sonos sound adjunct aliases possibly you’re going to support moving pinch Amazon and Alexa+ being there. And past we’re going to make caller civilization ones retired of building blocks that are enabled successful tons of different ways.

When I asked wherever the machine is, this is, to me, the large question: wherever does each this ambient agentic AI really live? Where does it person control? Is it going to hap locally? Are we sending everything to the cloud?

Somewhere successful your home, if you’re going to power lights, music, and everything else, location needs to beryllium immoderate logic happening successful your home. There are a batch of standards to do that. Some of them are good, immoderate of them are bad. Some of them person names that link straight to the connection fabric, for illustration Thread.

Sure.

There’s a batch going connected present successful position of conscionable the names and schemes of what could happen. Where do you spot this view? Who is your title here?

Is it that Apple is going to motorboat a caller HomePod pinch an AI-enabled Siri, and they already person a HomeKit, which is simply a beautiful well-built and beautiful celebrated smart location platform? Is it, “Well, OpenAI is going to person a hardware device, and possibly their first one’s going to beryllium successful the home, and you request to stave that disconnected and make judge group are talking straight to you, and you person the customer relationship”?

That seems not only undeveloped, but moreover the foundations of really you build the products — for illustration Matter and smart location standards — are messy and governmental successful very circumstantial ways. So really do you spot the competition, victory, and occurrence there? And past really do you lick conscionable the capacity spread that each different institution has tally into?

So 1 point that I’m reminded of successful this infinitesimal is that we, arsenic an industry, person these level shifts that unlock opportunities for companies who get fortunate connected timing. For example, the original dot-com era was really powered by Oracle and Sun Solaris boxes and information centers that you owned and operated yourself. We past went done a section wherever the infrastructure became Linux and unfastened root for your information tier.

Of course, we’ve had this immense agelong tally of unreality infrastructure. I deliberation that if you’re a institution that builds your stack connected Solaris and Oracle, it’s really that there’s an opportunity for a institution to travel on and build a stack connected Linux and Postgres successful that infinitesimal and abruptly find efficiencies that are very, very difficult for you to claim.

I deliberation thing very akin is happening successful sound assistants. When I perceive you talk connected the show astir your acquisition pinch sound assistants that are going done the modulation from first procreation to 2nd generation, it feels to maine for illustration truthful overmuch of the situation location is astir really we resistance on each of the committed relationships that we person for the internet-connected toaster, backmost massager, and each of the things that are connected into those existing humanities ecosystems.

Honestly, moreover successful the world of AI, pinch conscionable really overmuch has changed successful the past mates of years underneath the companies arsenic they’re building retired their answers here, it really feels to maine for illustration we are stepping into a infinitesimal wherever agentic instrumentality usage powered by protocols, for illustration MCP, is going to disintermediate a batch of that worldly that you’re talking about.

I deliberation that successful the contiguous term, we’re really excited astir what we tin do successful the usage cases that our customers are telling america they attraction about. Give maine temper and audio successful the home. We person awesome solutions for that today. And I deliberation we tin return advantage of this displacement to a genuinely next-generation architecture without the baggage of a decade of internet-connected ray switches from 17 different protocols pinch 17 different hubs successful the closet.

Well, I mean, portion of the opportunity location is that you don’t person a large sound assistant. I don’t deliberation the existent Sonos sound adjunct is astatine the standard of Alexa aliases Google Assistant. I’m conscionable guessing. They do person that problem. The ray switches successful my house, they’re successful the walls. They’re going to beryllium there. That Lutron hub is there. It’s not great. However, Lutron is the champion one.

It is. It is the champion one.

There’s a container successful my house, and location are a batch of those small weird small boxes successful my location because I person a smart home, and each of those limitations beryllium for those platforms for reasons. If you show up and say, “Use my sound adjunct instead,” and it can’t run each of the lights, well, I’m conscionable going to autumn backmost to Amazon, aliases I’m going to autumn backmost to Google. They cognize it, and they cognize they can’t break those things. Panos and I person talked astir it a lot, really successful the discourse of Alexa Plus.

The committedness of AI, astatine slightest from my very absurd vantage point, is, boy, I should not attraction astir immoderate of this. There’s a web successful my house. There are tons of devices connected that network. They person immoderate entree points connected that network, and possibly they’re API-driven entree points, possibly they’re MCP-driven. It should not matter. There’s conscionable a bunch of devices successful my web that you tin power somehow, and this all-seeing robot that is going to switch each occupation successful America should beryllium capable to traverse my web and move connected the lights without immoderate help. That’s what it should do.

Some of the very first large vibe coding shockwaves were AI researchers, bleeding-edge AI researchers, being like, “I figured retired really to power my shades. They walked done my network, and the shades spell up and down now,” right? We’re not location astatine the user level. The committedness is not there. I’m still present talking to you astir Matter, Thread, HomeKit, and whether aliases not Google Assistant tin power my Sonos Amp, which, by the way, it can’t, and that is my 1 summons to you that I didn’t taxable connected Threads.

That’s the promise, but the spread to that seems really, really huge. Are you capable to adjacent it? Is that the opportunity?

I deliberation we’re conscionable still successful the Apple II days of the location automation space. So while location is, arsenic you constituent out, this incredible, wild, heterogeneous world of different ray move controllers, I deliberation erstwhile you talk to mainstream consumers astir their homes, they’re not location yet.

I do deliberation that because of the profound technological measurement usability of agentic power of these kinds of services and things for illustration instrumentality use, arsenic the user catches up pinch the industry’s ambition to lick these problems, caller technological solutions will emerge. I’m really excited astir really we’re positioned to thrust that modulation and not beryllium encumbered by the decade of early adopter internet-connected ray switches.

What are you going to do astir the ray switches that are already successful the walls?

I conscionable don’t deliberation that there’s capable of them to matter successful the last answer. Of course, Lutron’s a awesome partner, and they do a awesome occupation pinch this.

They do. I mean, we person them. We’ve sewage each kinds of ray switches. We mostly person Lutron ones. But that’s my question. The first earthy customer for thing for illustration what you’re describing is personification who is already utilizing these products successful immoderate way. If you show up to my location and there’s nary Matter support aliases whatever, I’m like, “Well, I can’t usage it.”

Is it though, aliases is it much for illustration the quality betwixt the group that were adopting Creative Labs MP3 players earlier the iPod came along?

Sure.

Was the iPod really for those people, aliases was it for group that had that problem but were obscurity adjacent the group that had been early adopters? Or was the iPhone for group that were utilizing Windows CE, aliases was it for group that were utilizing flip phones who were fresh for the transition? I deliberation we’re making-

Is that the thought present “iPhone for smart location control” aliases “iPhone for audio successful the home”?

That’s right.

The move location that I deliberation is really absorbing is: who are you going to talk to? Where is the computer? What is the computer? You’re describing a business wherever if you want music, you’re going to talk to Sonos. But you besides person a general-purpose adjunct for illustration Claude aliases ChatGPT, and they tin talk to Sonos, too.

It’s unclear to maine — and it whitethorn beryllium 1 of the astir fascinating questions astatine this infinitesimal successful tech — wherever the interface goes. Are we each going to person 1 chatbot that does everything, and each the request is aggregated there, and OpenAI becomes much powerful than ever? Or are we going to person tons and tons of assistants that we reside successful tons and tons of different ways?

It seems for illustration your stake is Sonos will person a characteristic successful your home, possibly aggregate personalities successful your home, and customers will reside that, and each the different worldly will spell location else.

For 20 years, we’ve recovered a batch of occurrence astir the thought of embracing each magnitude of the problem. Yes, there’s an app, but you’re invited to prosecute pinch america done AirPlay aliases Spotify Connect. Yes, we person a sound adjunct that lives broadside by broadside pinch Alexa. Yes, we person proprietary mesh, but it integrates pinch Bluetooth and moreover line-in. I deliberation we stake that we’re of a size and standard that allows america to some beryllium nimble and respond to these changes, but besides person capable horsepower to support up technologically pinch what the champion successful the class are doing. So I deliberation immoderate of this conscionable plays retired connected the field.

Just 1 past idea, since you said it a mates of times, this mobility astir wherever the compute lives. I deliberation 1 incredibly powerful opportunity for Sonos is that we do spot compute successful millions and millions of homes. People don’t deliberation of them arsenic computers often, but they are. They create a seamless acquisition that is really the integration of a group of unreality services and section services successful a measurement that looks for illustration conscionable 1 aboveground area to the customer.

I deliberation that the reply to your questions, “Does this unrecorded successful the cloud? Does this unrecorded successful the home? Does this unrecorded successful a box?” is yes. I deliberation we’re beautiful uniquely situated to return advantage of an architecture wherever it’s not cloud-only, it’s not home-only, but it’s an integrated strategy that combines each of that together. And astatine the extremity of the day, that is what Sonos 27 is.

Just to make that really reductive, erstwhile I opportunity “where is the computer” successful the location context, what I mean is possibly successful the ‘90s to early 2000s, location was a imagination that we would each person location servers successful our basements, and they would do each the logic of our home. They would person each the storage, and Microsoft would waste you a Windows location server successful the basement and a Windows Media Center successful the surviving room, and you and I astir apt some watched each of those Bill Gates keynotes astatine CES.

None of that really ever came to pass. Instead, we put a batch of inexpensive computers adjacent each the TVs, and they connected to unreality services, and they’re fundamentally conscionable moving web browsers, arsenic you good know. That is simply a very different type of what needed to hap and really the marketplace played out.

In the smart home, I’ve sewage a bunch of automations successful my house. When the car shed is open, the lights move on, and different worldly happens. At night, the doors each fastener if they’re not locked. That logic has to unrecorded somewhere. My position connected it is that it should unrecorded successful my house. If the net goes down, the lights should still move on.

This is not thing to do pinch large AI integrations aliases the caller MCP measurement to reside the Sonos system. Those are large ideas, and I’m conscionable insistently dragging you backmost down into the ungraded of: if the net goes out, are the lights still going to move on?

You don’t want to beryllium the partner that puts successful the internet-connected ray switches that don’t activity erstwhile the net is down.

But it’s not conscionable the internet-connected ray switches; it’s the logic of making it each activity together.

I understand. Yeah, fair. Here’s what I’ll opportunity astir that. For 40 years now, we’ve been talking astir exertion for the home, starting pinch the individual computer, which is expected to beryllium the halfway of the technological household, but we didn’t really get that. We sewage laptops that group mostly usage astatine activity and usage a spot astatine home.

Then we sewage mobile, and mobile is expected to beryllium the point that you prosecute pinch erstwhile you time off your location connected your measurement to work. Of course, the basal media of mobile is truthful addicting that it’s all-consuming. We usage it astatine work, we usage it astatine location — we usage it each the time. But my study astir our usage of it successful the location is that cipher loves it. No spouse has ever said, “I wish my hubby was connected his telephone more. I wish my kid utilized their iPad more,” and truthful we’re looking for ways to get beyond that.

To your point, the different compute that’s successful the home, for illustration I said, is the set-top box, which is mostly conscionable a web browser to a bunch of services that unrecorded successful the cloud. I deliberation it’s beautiful interesting, actually, that successful 17 cardinal homes Sonos is an existent mesh of compute successful your location pinch existent horsepower, existent memory, existent CPU, existent capability, a existent operating strategy — each conscionable waiting to beryllium the instrumentality for immoderate of the kinds of things you’re talking about. So it’s ace interesting. We’ll fig it retired complete time.

I consciousness for illustration you’re this adjacent to being like, “And past the Teslas will beryllium a information center.” There’s thing location that is possibly the line. Actually, I want to talk astir that. I really want to push connected that a small bit.

The first Sonos invention 100 years ago, erstwhile the institution started, was, “Oh, we tin build a mesh network. We tin do wireless audio astatine scale. We tin synchronize the latency of each the speakers truthful it sounds for illustration the aforesaid euphony playing astatine the aforesaid time.” This was a batch of large engineering backmost successful the day.

Still, I mean, candidly, still. A batch of what our package squad does time successful and time retired is widen and support that infrastructure.

There are features you’re announcing present arsenic portion of Sonos Fabric that I deliberation are interesting. If you person surrounds, you tin conscionable spot them, and they’ll fig retired that they’re surrounds and instantly commencement being the situation speakers successful a location theater.

There’s conscionable a batch of potential, arsenic you’re describing, successful the conception that, “Oh, there’s a large web of mini computers successful my location that tin travel together and do things you would not expect.” Is your attraction that they will ever do audio things? Or is it the attraction that they will person galore much capabilities?

I deliberation immoderate thoughtful merchandise leader is going to show you the attraction is an important portion of success. I do consciousness for illustration there’s truthful overmuch absorbing activity for america to do astir creating an audio strategy that sets the temper for your location that I don’t want america to return our oculus disconnected of that opportunity. We are doing immoderate really breathtaking things successful Sonos Fabric and Sonos 27 that we should talk about, that get to immoderate of the activity that you’re describing.

But surely successful the moments wherever you let yourself to deliberation astir what the institution is successful 5 years and what it will beryllium successful 10 years, you can’t thief but interrogate what the opportunity is for a mesh — a cloth of compute that lives successful the home.

My fear, my anxiety, astir audio is ever that consumers will ever prime convenience complete quality. It’s conscionable the history of the... I’ve sewage a group of AirPods connected this desk, and they don’t sound great, but boy, are they convenient. And that’s conscionable the measurement it goes. It has ever been what the marketplace has demanded: convenience complete quality.

We’re going to participate a clip erstwhile Apple puts cameras connected AirPods, and you tin talk to them pinch Siri. When Google and Samsung vessel very akin products, there’s undoubtedly going to beryllium a flood of AI hardware startups that want to put thing successful your ears aliases successful your assemblage successful immoderate way.

You are successful the headphone market. You’re talking a batch astir AI; you’re talking a batch astir Fabric. That seems for illustration a cataclysm coming for headphones. The aforesaid measurement that the removal of the headphone jack was a cataclysm successful the headphone market, this seems for illustration the adjacent one.

How are you preparing for that? Do you deliberation there’s going to beryllium a scope of sound assistants connected headphones, aliases do you deliberation what you would telephone the first-party vendors are going to conscionable drawback much and much of that share?

Before we jump to the hypotheticals astir wherever headphones are, tin I show you a small spot astir the caller headphones?

Yeah, of course.

All right. So 1 of the things that you get from entering a caller marketplace is the opportunity to build thing and put it successful customers’ homes and study a batch astir what matters and what doesn’t matter.

So we launched Sonos Ace 2 years ago. I deliberation measured against immoderate of the different premium over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones successful the market, they’re a awesome product. They’ve sewage awesome reviews; they person awesome sound cancelling. They’re ace comfortable, and they look great. We’re really proud of the product, but they weren’t thoughtfully integrated into the Sonos ecosystem.

I mean, astatine motorboat you could switch to 1 of our soundbars, not moreover each of our soundbars. I deliberation it was the astir visible look of the missed opportunity of that infinitesimal for the institution to ever retrieve that the products that we make are portion of the Sonos system, not individual offerings.

So we ended up pinch a awesome brace of headphones, but honestly, I mean, you reappraisal them each the time; location are tons of awesome headphones. When we group retired to return each the lessons that we learned from Ace to creation Ace Ultra, astatine the very apical of that database is that we person to do the difficult thing. These headphones person to beryllium capable to show up successful your location arsenic a portion of the system, and the exemplary done which you invoke your headphones has to beryllium wholly seamless and delightful.

We built an wholly caller hardware level for Ace Ultra called Headphone Engine 2, and it unlocks this capacity astatine the hardware level. And past successful Sonos OS 27, we built virtualization truthful that immoderate 1 of the speakers successful your location tin present the audio level to that speaker but tin besides enactment arsenic a proxy for your headphones, which don’t person the horsepower to tally the afloat stack — it would termination artillery life, et cetera.

Now pinch Ace Ultra, you’ll beryllium capable to nexus your headphones to your Sonos system, locomotion up to a speaker that’s playing, property a fastener connected your headphones, and the euphony will jump from the speaker into your headphones. No Bluetooth, nary phone. You’ll beryllium capable to locomotion astir your full house, bask the music, travel to different speaker, property the fastener again, and it will jump to that speaker utilizing immoderate BLA location-sensing worldly that we’ve developed. It’s ace magical. It’s the 1 occupation that we had and didn’t present connected pinch Ace. We’re really excited to get it retired into the market.

Analogous to that connected the location theatre broadside is, arsenic you mentioned, that we’re making each of our portable speakers — Sonos Play, Sonos Move — tin of being rear channels for location theater. That sounds really easy. Maybe group will moreover beryllium like, “Why wasn’t that ever possible?” But to your constituent astir the heavy exertion of it, the measurement that we execute high-fidelity, low-latency situation experiences successful the surviving room is by straight bonding our rear transmission speakers and subwoofer to the soundbar connected a proprietary network, not done your entree point. So for a speaker to seamlessly hop betwixt being portion of your Sonos strategy arsenic a euphony node and portion of your Sonos strategy arsenic a situation transmission intends that you person to do a real-time reconfiguration of that networking stack, and you person to cognize erstwhile to do it.

We’re utilizing accelerometers successful the merchandise to really cognize that you’ve picked it up and group it down successful a caller location. We’re utilizing Sonos’ positioning system, which is ultrasonic signaling, to broadcast to the room, “Hey, is location a soundbar here?” Ultrasonic comes backmost saying, “I’m here.” They discuss position, near and right, and distance, truthful that they tin optimize the situation sound experience. You prime it up again, you return it backmost to the kitchen, and it’s a regular speaker again. All happens magically, nary usage of the app. It’s beautiful cool.

Answer my mobility connected headphones, though. This is my large worry. You’ve sewage really cool headphones. They person a characteristic that nary 1 other tin ship, and Apple’s going to say, “Look, our caller AirPods person Siri AI successful them.”

You tin conscionable say, “Show maine what I’m looking at,” and a image will beryllium taken automatically and thing will happen. We’ll get complete the privateness implications of that, but that’s a illness of the headphone market.

Maybe. I mean, headphones travel successful each kinds of shape factors today: over-ear, in-ear, cuffs, wireless, wired. So I do deliberation it’s a marketplace wherever group take different shape factors for different tasks. We’re really focused connected this individual in-the-home listening — what do you do erstwhile the baby’s asleep? What do you do erstwhile you want to move the statement from the room to the den while you relax for the evening? We deliberation that there’s a bunch of really absorbing usage cases location that different group aren’t paying attraction to.

I think, broadly, complete the people of the adjacent mates of years, we’re going to get each kinds of adventurous wackadoodle user electronics that are connected to this caller emerging AI universe. Most of them will beryllium a plaything and a miss. Of course, we’ve already seen immoderate of those. So it’s a small difficult to speculate, I think, astir which of these things, if any, is going to person its iPod infinitesimal aliases its iPhone infinitesimal aliases whatever.

What do you deliberation is going to happen?

I deliberation we’re going to spot a replay of what happened erstwhile the headphone jack sewage taken away. The headphone jack was an unfastened interconnect. There was a really vibrant marketplace for each kinds of headphones, and a bunch of those companies don’t beryllium anymore. The high-end wired headphones, for phones anyway, person mostly gone away, and you person a bunch of mean Bluetooth competitors, but the telephone makers person mostly taken that pinch first-party products.

Now, you person your products astatine the precocious extremity competing pinch really high-end noise-canceling products from Bose and Sony and whoever, and that is the airplane set. The deficiency of the unfastened interconnect has really killed the vibrancy of the debased and mediate extremity of the market.

Okay, well, there’s 1 large point they tin do to make judge the precocious extremity belongs to them, and it’s to merge AI successful very circumstantial ways straight into their operating system. We’ll spot really that plays out. There’s besides a point that’s different this time: there’s a vastly much energized European regulatory environment. Who knows really this will play out?

Sure.

I can’t show you, but each that worldly is simply a swirl, and you’re a headphone maker, and it seems for illustration different headphone makers are taking different approaches to this.

The only antagonistic that I mightiness connection is that there’s a batch of talk astir the walled plot of the Bluetooth advantages that the level companies have. But I would opportunity moreover without the European regulators, it’s notable that thing for illustration the Meta Glasses tin person a reasonable, I think, commercially viable group of experiences that are principally powered by compute that lives connected your telephone and still present conversational AI that is mediated by a Bluetooth connection, admittedly down immoderate of the obstacles that you’re describing. But those obstacles aren’t truthful profound that clever companies aren’t figuring retired really to activity wrong those constraints.

I’m very funny to spot really that plays out. It doesn’t look for illustration it’s successful focus. Again, astir apt because, arsenic you say, nary of the products are successful focus. No 1 knows what a deed merchandise present looks like, truthful you mightiness arsenic good fto a 1000 flowers bloom and past radically constrict the market.

Yeah, sure.

Tom, I’ve burned conscionable a ton of your time. I deliberation you tin show I could talk to you for ages and ages astir each kinds of things.

Super fun.

Tell america what’s adjacent for Sonos. When does each this worldly ship?

So I deliberation by the clip this airs, we’ll person announced each of this to the world. We’re having a large arena successful New York to stock Sonos OS 27, Sonos Voice 27, and the Ace Ultra and Beam Ultra. We can’t hold to get this worldly retired into the world and statesman to perceive what our customers do pinch each of these breathtaking caller products.

Many of the package features are going to beryllium disposable successful early access, which will mean our customers will opt into them, beryllium capable to springiness america feedback, and we’ll beryllium capable to observe the telemetry that comes backmost from their homes and make judge that we’re delivering precisely the acquisition that we want. We’re excited astir the infinitesimal of co-creation that’s astir the area for us.

As we talked astir astatine the apical of the hour, Sonos 27 is perfectly a motion to the truth that we intend to support doing this until the sun burns out. There’ll beryllium Sonos 28 and 29 and 30 and beyond.

That’s great. All right, I’ve sewage to inquire you astatine the end: I person ceiling speakers successful my kitchen. They’re connected to a Sonos Amp. There’s a Google Home Hub correct there, and it’s broken. I can’t inquire it to play euphony successful the kitchen. When are you going to hole that for me? I’m ending connected tech support.

All right. I don’t cognize the answer, but I’d emotion to fig it retired for you. I cognize the correct folks to call, truthful let’s get you connected.

We’re going to person a Decoder roundtable.

If your listeners person akin kinds of problems, we’ve sewage awesome group to thief them, and we ever for illustration to perceive from you. You tin find maine connected societal beautiful easily.

Usually I extremity by inviting group back, but I’m saying we’ve sewage to hole it, and past we’re going to talk astir what it took to hole it. That’s the plan.

All right. Right on.

Tom, this is great. Thank you truthful much, man.

This was ace fun. Thank you.

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