Sonos had a very strange day on the 5th February. There was the leaked news about the new Pinewood streaming box, with price details and intentions that paint a picture of a very expensive Apple TV 4K rival. And then, once the dust had just about settled around the new TV add-on, Sonos itself made the news again by laying off 200 staff.
It perfectly encapsulates the issues that Sonos has been facing over the last couple of years, condensing everything down into a short 24 hour period. The heady heights of exciting new hardware, to financial issues that force the company's hand in laying off hundreds of talented staff.
Just what is going on?
Sonos' problematic timeline
On May 7th, 2024, Sonos users everywhere were treated to a new app to control their interconnected Sonos smart home audio gear. The app was supposed to make things easier for users, streamlining certain more complicated features and making things look nicer with a fresh new aesthetic. On the surface, things seemed to be going well — the app did indeed look nicer, and there where new features ready for new products to use.
Within hours, though, users started to find problems. Features like alarm clocks where completely missing, and Sonos devices that had become central parts of people's lives weren't showing up in their updated apps. Hundreds of thousands of users who'd updated to the latest app found a multitude of issues that, in some cases, completely broke their home audio setups, leaving them without any kind of way to listen to their music. As you can imagine, customers were not pleased.
Then, as the app dilemma continued to boil away, Sonos released the Sonos Ace ANC headphones, the company's first foray into the portable, personal audio space. By all accounts, they were excellent headphones, with four and five star reviews across the board — we gave them 4.5 stars in our review, loving their attention to detail and spectacular Dolby Atmos performance.
Ultimately, the Sonos Ace didn't do much to help the ailing firm. The Sonos Ace didn't sell very well at all, likely because people had lost trust in the firm thanks to the app problems. Even an apology from Sonos' then CEO, Patrick Spence, didn't seem to do much.
As a result, the firm laid off 100 staff members in August of 2024 — only two months after the launch of the Sonos Ace, and three months post App update.
But then things looked up again — the Sonos Arc Ultra was on the way, eventually launching in October 2024. Like the Sonos Ace headphones, the Sonos Arc Ultra landed to rave reviews, including our own 5-star rating. At this point, Sonos had been improving its app steadily, in some effort to improve the standing of the firm amongst users. There was even a road map now, showing when to expect the return of old features and appearance of new ones.
And yet still, things still weren't going well. In January of 2025, Sonos' CEO stepped down from the company — mostly thanks to Sonos' woeful app launch. That leaves us where we are today, seeing the highs and lows of Sonos shrunk down and concentrated into a short, 24 hour period.
Sonos' very weird day
Now, the leak of the Pinewood TV box, perhaps priced at an eye-watering $400, was not an official one. The story was broken by The Verge and the percolated down throughout the rest of the tech media landscape. But it's still exciting — like the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sonos Ace that have come before, its evidence that Sonos doesn't want to give up in the face of a terrible tidal wave of bad press that almost always seems to completely blow things out of proportion.
So when it was followed by some very sad, official news, it shows just how tumultuous things are for what used to be the best smart speaker maker around. Mark Gurman reports that Sonos has laid off 200 members of staff, as a result of the continued issues with the app.
Sonos says that its become "mired in too many layers that have made collaboration and decision-making harder than it needs to be.” Spin it how you like, but 200 people have just lost their livelihoods — although the firm likely needs to save money as its value in the stock market plummets, and sales drop thanks to continued negative public feeling around the Sonos app.
What's next for Sonos?
We've reported on how there are companies that might want to acquire Sonos, from Apple to Samsung or Meta, although that's mostly speculation at this point. The immediate future points to the release of the Pinewood TV box, and the continued improvement of the Sonos app.
But has the damage already been done? The company seems to be continuing to struggle sales wise, even on its newest and most exciting products. The app has done a lot of damage to the public's opinion of the firm, and it takes a lot to bring old customers back once they've been put off by thousands of dollars worth of equipment that stops working because they where excited for new features and a new app.
I, for one, hope that Sonos survives and returns to thriving. The firm popularised a home streaming music system, becoming the envy of many for a very long time. It's devices sound excellent and always look lovely, with a cohesive design language that many can only wish for. Even the app now is in a far more useable state, working better than it did pre-update.
With a little luck and some continued effort to improve its image in the eyes of users who feel betrayed, Sonos could be back on top of the smart speaker game again. But right now, things aren't looking so hot for the firm. And that's a crying shame.
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