Despite apparently being far along Sonos is cancelling its streaming set top box.
The cancellation was announced during an all-hands call according to a report from The Verge's Chris Warren, who is generally tapped into the inner workings of Sonos.
The streaming video player, codenamed Pinewood, has been rumored for some time and allegedly was in beta testing before the all-hands.
Apparently, the team behind Pinewood will be reassigned, and interim CEO Tom Conrad said that Sonos' attempt at video was done "for now."
When Conrad stepped in to run Sonos after former CEO Patrick Spence left, he said all the write things about reprioritizing the direction of the company and getting back to "our shared ideals." His stated goal was to win back the trust of customers and reposition Sonos as a maker of quality audio equipment.
However, the streaming box was supposed to launch later this year, and without it, Sonos doesn't clearly have a new product for release in 2025.
What's next for Sonos?
Beyond fixing the app — an ongoing process — it's not clear what else Sonos will do to achieve that goal this year.
Last year, Sonos released the Arc Ultra soundbar and Sub 4 as well as the excellent Sonos Ace headphones. Both are quality and among the best soundbars and best headphones.
Though it appears both may have suffered from the ill-conceived app designed that defined much 2024 for the company. According to Warren, internally some employees believe that the Pinewood project would be similar to the Ace headphones, a product attempting to take on established manufacturers in a saturated market.
For now, it seems Sonos is all-in on getting the app back in working order, and based on comments and official Sonos forums and subreddits, it's getting there though clearly some are still having issues.
Only mostly dead
Based on the report though, Pinewood may not be totally dead.
“We don’t comment on our roadmap, but as has been previously announced we have a long-standing relationship with The Trade Desk and that relationship continues,” a Sonos spokesperson told Warren.
Trade Desk, for reference, is the company that would have helped build the operating system the Sonos streaming box would run on. A potentially controversial system that might have been more ad-centric than people would want.
What was Pinewood?
Pinewood was supposed to be a small TV box about the size of a deck of cards that could be controlled by voice or the Sonos app, plus a remote with shortcuts to streaming apps.
It was originally greenlit by Spence and the passion project of Sonos' Nick Millington, the company's Chief Innovation Office, who was moved over to oversee the app recovery.
Reportedly, the box would have been Android-based and act as an entire home theater system. It's supposed to be an HDMI switch with a number of HDMI ports capable of passthrough.
The most exciting feature was the ability to actually configure your Sonos speakers as a true surround sound system. Honestly, if that's all Sonos did this year, it would make many people quite happy.
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