Following more than a year of speculation that Sonos would release a video streamer to rival Apple, Amazon, Google and Roku’s popular offerings sometime this year, a new report from The Verge states that those plans are now being shelved.
The highly rumoured and anticipated Sonos set-top streaming box was expected to launch the company into the video space, with rumours from the same The Verge author stating that the player, codenamed Pinewood, would use the Android operating system, serve as a HDMI switch and accommodate other video sources, offer the means to configure a proper Sonos surround speaker system, and cost between £200 / $200 and £400 / $400. Only last month was there word of this Sonos streamer launching in the coming months, following a period of beta testing. But those hopes appear to have now been dashed, with the latest report stating that the product abandonment was ‘announced by the company’s leadership during an all-hands call’.
Sonos’s venture into video streaming is being kicked down the road, with Interim CEO Tom Conrad reportedly telling employees it is being shelved “for now”. Presumably the company’s primary focus will be on rebuilding its reputation after a tumultuous 2024 in which it launched disappointing wireless headphone debuts (the Sonos Ace) and disastrously botched its app relaunch, angering customers and resulting in Patrick Spence standing down as CEO in January after eight years. The company’s board of directors recently said it was concentrating on “improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust”.
While the delay is disappointing – not least as it was the only major new hardware launch we really expected from Sonos in 2025 – the last thing it can afford to do is run the risk of rushing out another brand-new product that doesn’t trouble its established competitors in that field. After all, if its rumoured price – significantly higher than that of its rivals – is to be believed, the Sonos video streamer would have to be a much more complete, and probably innovative, package for it not to sink.
So where does this leave Sonos? Likely in a state of evolution as opposed to revolution this year, although we can keep our fingers crossed for the materialisation of a Sonos Beam Gen 3 soundbar in the hopefully near future. The arrival of the Arc Ultra late last year was certainly one footstep in the right direction, with our expert reviews team calling the company’s latest Dolby Atmos soundbar “a hit” and “worth the wait” – “a huge upgrade on the still-very-good original Arc”.
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