Battered by a botched update to its flagship app last year that left its users howling for blood, Sonos badly needed a win for 2025—a new product that would finally turn the page.
The solution? A $400 streaming video player, if the rumors were true.
Pretty much every observer, myself included, thought that was a disastrous idea for Sonos, a company that made its name with high-quality networked speakers. But the company, stunned by the backlash to a revamped app that was—at least initially—riddled with bugs and missing key features, appeared to have lost its way.
Well, cooler heads seem to have prevailed, with The Verge reporting that Sonos has cancelled plans for the long-in-development streaming player, code-named Pinewood.
Sonos isn’t saying anything on the record, but according to The Verge, Sonos execs announced during a company all-hands that it had nixed its Pinewood plans.
The move, which comes two months after Sonos’s longtime CEO stepped down, likely means Sonos won’t have any splashy new product launches for the rest of 2025, or at least none that would involve new product categories for the brand.
But Sonos’ decision also means it won’t wander into well-trod territory with a too-expensive product, something it arguably did with the indifferently received Sonos Ace headphones, which the company launched shortly after its app fiasco.
Pinewood, if the leaks are true, was to be yet another boxy black streaming box, complete with an integrated HDMI switch that would have allowed users to connect game consoles, Blu-ray players, and other video sources.
The streaming box would also have worked with your existing Sonos speakers, allowing you to set up a wireless home theater without the need for a soundbar.
While the streaming player and its built-in HDMI switch would have helped to alleviate the lip-sync issues that occasional bedevil home theater aficionados, it also raised eyebrows with its rumored price range: anywhere between $200 and $400, making it much pricier than the already premium-priced Apple TV 4K and Nvidia Sheild players.
Contributing to the concern was word that Sonos collaborated on Pinewood with The Trade Desk, a digital ad firm, leading to worries that the streaming player’s interface might serve advertisements or track its users’ viewing habits.
It seemed an odd move for Sonos to plunge into a unfamiliar and saturated category with an overpriced device, rather than doubling down on one that it pioneered and soon dominated: mid-priced multi-room audio.
An about face like this is never fun, but it’s a better idea than marching toward a cliff. Now maybe Sonos can get back to the basics, and—with time—win back the trust of its customers.