Things have been a little rocky for Sonos of late. Sure, the company just announced a new high-end soundbar, but it also got its app back to mostly functional after a disastrous update. And it recently launched a pair of critically acclaimed headphones that apparently didn’t sell very well.
Despite the app issues and lackluster sales of the Ace headphones, Sonos is moving forward. A new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims the firm still believes in headphones enough to work on a premium model offering even better sound quality and more features than the existing Ace.
It seems like a questionable strategy to lean harder into a market that has yet to be lucrative for the company. Perhaps the company figures the already-capable Ace wasn’t high-end enough for its buyers, who tend to want top-end sound quality from the best headphones on the market.
In the PowerOn Newsletter, Gurman said, “Sonos is still struggling with its high-profile attempt to crack the headphone market. I’m told that the company only sold about 200,000 units of the new Ace headphones through September. I previously reported that Sonos slashed its annual manufacturing plans from as much as 1 million units to about 10% of that.”
The report continues, “Still, Sonos is working on a plan to potentially turn around its fortunes: a higher-end model.”
Reportedly, Sonos intends to drop the price of the Ace by $50, down to $400, and release the new model at the $450 price point the Ace previously occupied. “The idea is knock $50 off the price of the current model, and then sell the more upscale version at $450,” said Gurman.
That would lower the barrier to entry to Sonos’ headphones a little while also creating a model with some extra bells and whistles. However, $400 is already prohibitively expensive compared to most of the best noise cancelling headphones, so the company is trying to appeal to high-end buyers with either model, drastically limiting the buyer pool.
