Comments made by Sonos and a recently leaked internal email suggest that Sonos is almost ready to enter the headphones market.
The multi-room audio specialist held its latest earnings call yesterday, revealing a troubling 5.5% drop in revenue. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said that the company’s big hope for turning things around will be “entry into a new multi-billion dollar category in the second half of the year [2024] that will complement our current offering, delight customers and drive immediate revenue”.
While Spence didn’t say anything specific about headphones, a subsequent Bloomberg report appears to give the game away. An internal email from Chief Product Officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin has leaked, in which the executive revealed that a dedicated headphone team was operating within Sonos.
In truth, this isn’t remotely surprising. We’ve been hearing reports of Sonos preparing to enter into the headphones business for several years now, with various specialist acquisitions and patent applications confirming that Sonos has been investing in headphones expertise.
These latest tidbits appear to suggest that the audio company could be ready to make its move at last.
The aforementioned leaked email also revealed some more troubling news from Sonos. Its primary intention seemed to be to notify employees of impending job cuts and “a shift in product strategy”. No precise job cut figures were mentioned, but staff are set to be notified imminently.