2 weeks Ago By David Richards
Desperate to stop a slump in sales, brand tarnished Sonos is getting set to launch two new products, the Arc Ultra which houses Mayht’s “new, revolutionary approach to audio transducers”. After forking out A$150 million for the Netherlands based Company, that has several patents on the new audio technology that Sonos was punting on to differentiate themselves, in a highly competitive audio market. Now Sonos is now facing the real possibility that the damage caused to the brand by their disastrous app roll out, is set to hurt future sales and that the $150M million they spent on the aquisition will be lost.
Currently Sonos products are being deranged at some retailers and their ranging reduced at others due to a major slowdown in demand for Sono’s speakers. The acquisition of Mayht Holding BV (“Mayht”), a Netherlands-based company was supposed to be the technology that would give Sonos an edge. The European Company Sonos acquired, has invented a new, revolutionary approach to audio transducers.
Transducers are the foundational element within speakers that create sound, and Mayht has re-engineered them to enable smaller and lighter form factors without compromising on quality. “Mayht’s breakthrough in transducer technology will enable Sonos to take another leap forward in our product portfolio,” said Patrick Spence, CEO (Seen above) in 2022 when the Company was acquired. “This strategic acquisition delivers us technology and intellectual property that will further distinguish the Sonos experience” he said at the time.
The Arc Ultra will be the first Sonos product with the technology, with Sonos punting on being able to charge a premium for the new soundbar which is tipped to cost close to A$1,800 in Australia. Images leaked by Sonos reveal that the Company has reworked the device’s physical controls. A power button is to the far left, with playback controls in the center and an indented volume slider bar on the right side.
The struggling Company is also tipped to announce a new high-end subwoofer, the Sub 4, alongside the Arc Ultra. Images of the Sub 4 show a design similar to its predecessors, but with matte finish. Seen here is a picture with two Sub 4 subwoofers on the floor beneath it.
Both the soundbar and Sub 4 will be offered in either black or white. Recently Spence said Sonos was delaying the release of two products to ensure that all of the company’s focus would go toward fixing its redesigned mobile app which has still not been fixed. Besieged by bugs, iffy performance, and a rash of customer complaints since its debut in May the debacle has seriously damaged.
Forbes Magazine in the USA wrote recently, ‘Sonos—the much-maligned home audio company—continues to find itself ensnared in a crisis entirely of its own making. The botched rollout of its new app isn’t just a technical failure—it’s a full-blown “App-ocalypse” that reveals a leadership team out of touch and out of its depth’ they wrote. The also said claimed that 15.
3 million households rely on their products, but Sonos’s mishandling of the new app rollout has left its most loyal customers wondering if the company still values the quality and user experience that built its brand’. Spence has since conceded that Sonos should have released the rebuilt app as an opt-in beta instead of thrusting all customers into an experience that lagged behind the previous software — both in feature set and overall reliability. Internally, some of the dissatisfaction among the rank and file at Sonos has been directed at executives including chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, The Verge has learned.
There’s a belief that the higher-ups have made a string of bad decisions that prioritise deadlines and hitting targets over product quality, despite warnings from engineers and others at the company that they’re rushing things..
