I almost want to root for Sonos here, but just can't, after their acts to force account creation / login, hamstring the desktop setup application to force setup via mobile app, etc. They've transitioned to the "good riddance" category and any new speaker-type things in the house will be the old kind attached to something that may or may not support AirPlay 2--or else dumb bluetooth speakers.

Not to mention their acquisition of possibly the only mature local-network voice assistant (Snips) followed by immediately removing the local-only option.

Came here to mention this! Recently I spent some time evaluating snips, doing some research and looking at documentation without actually starting anything.

Decided to dive in, only to realize they blocked new console sign-ups, having been acquired by Sonos. Waste of time, I blame Sonos.

That’s what you get for creating a closed system for connected speakers. You get trounced by bigger fish who can do it just as well and have wider integration.

Sonos speakers for a home theatre and multi-room sound system, still shits all over Google and Amazon. By Far.

So in my opinion, Google may be able to do better but they haven't

Sonos needs a pivot quickly. The high end residential control space is still up for grabs. Control 4 and Crestron with their dealer/programmer networks are the ultimate rent seekers. These homes have tons of legacy equipment that wouldn't work with newer systems from AMZ/Apple/Samsung etc.

Agree in principal but I fear it is too little too late at this point; Sonos has been leaning hard into thier "IP Portfolio" for a while now. To me their core technology was basically to patenting clock sync over wifi for the purpose of playing audio. Anyone developing a similar product who might even consider that Sonos holds a patent should have a trivial time of producing a non-infringing implementation. Nevertheless Sonos have somehow been able to win some cases against some decent enough names like Denon, and now it looks like they are going for real meat. I suspect Google to steamroll them in the courts, but it may be lengthy and expensive to undo some of the legal precedent they have established. Or Google could have signed a bad contract with them in the past, which could further empower Sonos (bad for everyone.)

Despite its proprietary nature, when Sonos first came out I heavily recommended it to many people because it solved a lot of problems and "just worked" at a price point that was high but fair, especially given the apparent quality and polish of the product. When it became apparent they were instead committed to bleeding their own customers dry I completely gave up on them. Was there ever any discussion on HN about how Sonos encourages their customers to brick their current players when upgrading by offering deep discounts? This practice is despicable.

I hate to say it but now I have come to judge people who buy Sonos negatively as I feel they are uninformed consumers contributing to a malicious company. This is a pretty dangerous place to be for a company reliant on their brand and reputation.

Google and Amazon could have stole nothing and Sonos would still be doomed by their walled garden strategy in the long run.

Why not name Amazon at the same time? Seems like it's mostly the same legal work to me...

They are attempting to set precedence with Google before going after Amazon and others. Going against them all at once would likely bankrupt them.