Apple Music partner Sonos has its eyes on the future and with it comes burying the past. In this case, the past means laying off some of its employees as it shifts the the focus of its hardware to concentrate on streaming music and voice tech.
In a blog post, Sonos Chief Executive John MacFarlane explains that the shift in focus is inevitable, arguing that the company needs to make changes to its format if it wishes to stay innovative and successful.
"Today, the entire music ecosystem is in transition - ultimately for the better - and so is Sonos," he writes. "We have a good idea of how this will evolve over time, and we've never been more bullish on what it means for music fans. But we also know that to continue to innovate and bring compelling new experiences to market, we need to invest heavily against the opportunity."
His statement continues to note that this transition will mean lay offs, though he declined to detail just how many would see the end of their employment. "We are in the process of letting go of some Sonos employees who have played important roles getting us to this point," he continued.
He wasted no time in mentioning that Amazon's Alexa and the Echo line of products was a major part of why this change came to be, noting that beyond streaming, Sonos has taken an interest in voice control in the home. However, based on his own words, this change may put Sonos and Amazon in direct competition with one another.
"We're fans of what Amazon has done with Alexa and the Echo product line," MacFarlane said. "Voice recognition isn't new; today it's nearly ubiquitous with Siri, OK Google, and Cortana. But the Echo found a sweet spot in the home and will impact how we navigate music, weather, and many, many other things as developers bring new ideas and more content to the Alexa platform."
As a result, "we're going to focus on building incredibly rich experiences that were all but unimaginable when we started the company, and will be at the vanguard of what it means to listen to music at home," he added.
On the other hand it may serve to bring the two closer together, since as spokeswoman notes, Sonos has no intention to create its own streaming music service.
"Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music, Spotify, Google, Pandora and many others are already doing a terrific job there - as evidenced by the explosive growth of paid subscriptions," she said. "At Sonos our job is to make it easy to listen to any and all of these services out loud in every room of your home."
With this in mind, it'll be interesting to see what comes next. Sonos has already expressed interest Amazon and Alexa, however it may have easy access to Siri after entering a partnership with Apple's Apple Music service in February.
