Sonos and Ikea are teaming up to create a speaker that can act as a shelf
- Ikea released details about its first product that will be made with Sonos since the two companies announced an upcoming collaboration in December 2017.
- The Ikea/Sonos speaker will be designed to be functional as a piece of furniture, like a shelf, or it can be integrated into Ikea furniture so that it's less of a standalone device.
- The speaker, called "Symphonies," will be available after the summer of 2019.
Sonos and Ikea have revealed details on the first product to be made since they announced their collaboration back in December 2017.
On Thursday, Ikea announced its debut hardware will be a speaker called "Symfonisk" that combines the wireless audio expertise from Sonos and the furniture company's design know-how.
Ikea said the Symfonisk speaker will come with brackets so it can be installed on a wall and act like a shelf/speaker combination. The company also said it can integrated into existing Ikea furniture, like the Metod kitchen cabinet using the brackets.
The idea is to have a speaker that integrates into a home's decor and functions like a built-in speaker system rather than existing as a standalone device. "Many people dream of built-in sound systems, but few can afford it. Our goal is for our collective work to save space, get rid of cords, make clutter invisible, and bring sound and music into the home in a more beautiful way," Ikea's Home Smart business leader Björn Block said in the company's press release.
The Symfonisk speaker is still under development at this stage, and is expected to be sold in Ikea stores after the summer of 2019.
As for pricing, there are no details yet. The Sonos/Ikea collaborations was described as a "democratization" of music and sound in the home, so with that in mind, the Sonos/Ikea speaker may not cost as much as a typical speaker from Sonos, like the $200 Sonos One.