Shares of both Sonos and Logitech are trading lower following a report that Apple has stopped selling third-party headphones and speakers in its stores and online.
According to Bloomberg, Apple stopped selling all headphones and speakers from Bose, speakers from Logitech’s Ultimate Ears brand, and Sonos smart speakers as of the end of last month. The article notes that Apple is developing Apple-branded over-the-ear headphones, and has been working on a smaller version of its HomePod smart speaker…
A check Tuesday morning found that the only audio products for sale at Apple’s online store were Apple AirPods and EarPods, and various headphones and earbuds from the company’s Beats subsidiary.
Sonos shares were down 3% to $15.15, while Logitech shares fell 4.5%, to $77.10.
MacDailyNews Take: What did we say on the day Sonos filed for its IPO?
Good luck, Sonos. Competing with Apple in the high end smart speaker market (they only market in which Apple competes currently) is going to be a tall order. No smart speaker will ever work as well for Apple product users as Apple’s own smart speaker(s). And that’s not even taking Apple’s massive monetary and retail advantages into account. – MacDailyNews, February 2, 2018
I don’t know, you may be right.
I have a bunch of Sonos pieces though and it all seems to work well.
I have a HomePod but seldom use it for anything. Alexa is faster for setting a timer for instance. I don’t get a just a second message. And I also can’t use it as a Bluetooth speaker which just seems odd.
Anyway I guess we will see what happens.
I too just bought a pricey $1800 Sonos Arc surround system and it easily works how you might think an Apple system might – only they don’t have one. Very satisfied with my Sonos system. It should be “Good luck Apple” trying to compete with Sonos. Waiting on Apple to come up with something is an agonizing, decomposing time frustration. Life is too short.
Bad move. Apple seems to be hiding from competition. Besides, choice is good.
I actually have only friends who own iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Mac Pros, AirPods, Apple Watches but I swear NOONE owns a HomePod.
Literally almost everyone has Amazon Echoes or Sonos products at home.