Apple just started selling Sonos at their stores, and I am not happy about it. Below are a few of the reasons I think it is a bad fit for Apple:
1. Airplay - Airplay is Apple's competing technology that has not reached its full potential. As a result, I think Apple has an obligation to fill in the missing parts for people invested in THEIR technology before adding a third party service to fill in some of the empty spaces.
I have an article discussing the things that Apple needs to do to make Airplay better, but the main two shortfalls are the lack of multi-room audio from iOS and the lack of Siri integration. The lack of multi-room audio is 100 percent Apple's fault and has zero to do with the limitations of iOS.
In their own words, the iPad is supposed be a 5 year old PC replacement, yet a 5 year old PC can easily handle multi-room Airplay and my brand new iPad can't. The WHAALE app can handle multi-room audio in iOS and I have a feeling that Apple's engineers have the capability to duplicate something that is being done in a third party app (if nothing else, they should give WHAALE access to Apple Music..it already works with Deezer).
1. Airplay - Airplay is Apple's competing technology that has not reached its full potential. As a result, I think Apple has an obligation to fill in the missing parts for people invested in THEIR technology before adding a third party service to fill in some of the empty spaces.
I have an article discussing the things that Apple needs to do to make Airplay better, but the main two shortfalls are the lack of multi-room audio from iOS and the lack of Siri integration. The lack of multi-room audio is 100 percent Apple's fault and has zero to do with the limitations of iOS.
In their own words, the iPad is supposed be a 5 year old PC replacement, yet a 5 year old PC can easily handle multi-room Airplay and my brand new iPad can't. The WHAALE app can handle multi-room audio in iOS and I have a feeling that Apple's engineers have the capability to duplicate something that is being done in a third party app (if nothing else, they should give WHAALE access to Apple Music..it already works with Deezer).
As I said, they need to implement Airplay into Siri. Why can't I walk in the room and tell Siri to play music in the living room (receiver with Airplay built in) or to the Sunroom (Airport Express) and just have it start playing? Google will be coming out with Casting features in their Google Home device that will put this to shame. Pretty pathetic that Apple is falling so far behind the curve despite beating Google to market with both Airplay and Siri. Adding Sonos to their store is putting a Band Aid in a place that they need stitches.
2. Sonos Walled Garden - Sonos is a walled garden with Apple Music at this point. As of right now, you can't simply stream from Apple Music or Overcast Podcast app to Sonos (You can do it with Google Music right now, but I digress). In fact, many audio apps and video apps, like Youtube on iOS, do not work with Sonos at all. Let's say you were listening to an album in your car or on a jog and went into your home and wanted to start listening to it on your system, with Airplay, you hit one button and don't miss a beat. With Sonos, you close the Apple Music app, start Sonos app, and start playing the song again.
3. Confusion - Anyone experienced with using Airplay or Bluetooth and seeing it show up from any app or from the Control Center will be confused when the $199 speaker that they have plugged into the wall in the corner, that they just bought from Apple, can't even play their podcasts.
4. Beats - Beats was already working on a Sonos competitor when Apple purchased them for $3 billion dollars. They scrapped that technology when they bought Beats for no apparent reason. Right now, I am not aware of a Beats speaker that even has Airplay built into it. There is no excuse for buying a company that makes speakers and not implementing your own Airplay technology into their speakers when Phillips, and others, have had Airplay capabilities for years. I should mention that Beats speakers do have Bluetooth. Similar to Airplay, Bluetooth works across the entire iOS ecosystem, so it at least doesn't require a third party app to be useful.
So maybe Apple has given up on Airplay? If that is the case, a lot of people that own new AppleTVs, new receivers, individual speakers, and Airport Express units (and third party airplay receivers) will be disappointed. I have two brand new receivers and both of them have Airplay built in, so it isn't like Apple isn't still making money on it. My feeling is that they should support their own tech before adding competing third party devices to their stores.
(By the way, note that this article has nothing to do with whether Sonos is a good value or not. I have an older article comparing Sonos to Airplay that discusses some of those issues, but I would be saying the same thing if they were putting Denon Heos speakers (although it works with Bluetooth) or BlueSound Speakers (also works with Bluetooth) in their stores. So sound quality or value have nothing to do with this particular argument.)
2. Sonos Walled Garden - Sonos is a walled garden with Apple Music at this point. As of right now, you can't simply stream from Apple Music or Overcast Podcast app to Sonos (You can do it with Google Music right now, but I digress). In fact, many audio apps and video apps, like Youtube on iOS, do not work with Sonos at all. Let's say you were listening to an album in your car or on a jog and went into your home and wanted to start listening to it on your system, with Airplay, you hit one button and don't miss a beat. With Sonos, you close the Apple Music app, start Sonos app, and start playing the song again.
3. Confusion - Anyone experienced with using Airplay or Bluetooth and seeing it show up from any app or from the Control Center will be confused when the $199 speaker that they have plugged into the wall in the corner, that they just bought from Apple, can't even play their podcasts.
4. Beats - Beats was already working on a Sonos competitor when Apple purchased them for $3 billion dollars. They scrapped that technology when they bought Beats for no apparent reason. Right now, I am not aware of a Beats speaker that even has Airplay built into it. There is no excuse for buying a company that makes speakers and not implementing your own Airplay technology into their speakers when Phillips, and others, have had Airplay capabilities for years. I should mention that Beats speakers do have Bluetooth. Similar to Airplay, Bluetooth works across the entire iOS ecosystem, so it at least doesn't require a third party app to be useful.
So maybe Apple has given up on Airplay? If that is the case, a lot of people that own new AppleTVs, new receivers, individual speakers, and Airport Express units (and third party airplay receivers) will be disappointed. I have two brand new receivers and both of them have Airplay built in, so it isn't like Apple isn't still making money on it. My feeling is that they should support their own tech before adding competing third party devices to their stores.
(By the way, note that this article has nothing to do with whether Sonos is a good value or not. I have an older article comparing Sonos to Airplay that discusses some of those issues, but I would be saying the same thing if they were putting Denon Heos speakers (although it works with Bluetooth) or BlueSound Speakers (also works with Bluetooth) in their stores. So sound quality or value have nothing to do with this particular argument.)
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