Sonos warns that Amazon has the power to disable Alexa on Sonos speakers with 'limited notice,' and that poses a risk to its business
- Sonos filed to go public on Friday, where it mentioned some important concerns and potential risks to its business.
- The company noted that Amazon could disable its Alexa voice assistant on specific Sonos speakers with "limited notice," which could harm its products' desirability.
- Amazon could also demand licensing fees for Alexa, which could hurt Sonos' bottom line.
Audio hardware company Sonos filed to go public on Friday, where the company said in its filing that the success of some of its products depends on Amazon playing nice.
Sonos has a range of speakers that come with Amazon's popular voice assistant - Alexa - built in, including the Sonos One smart speaker and Sonos Beam soundbar. With Alexa-powered Sonos speakers, a user can play music and issue other commands like smart home controls using just their voice.
Sonos notes in its S-1 filing that Amazon itself is competing with Sonos' products with devices like the Amazon Echo, and that its agreement with Amazon "allows Amazon to disable the Alexa integration in our Sonos One and Sonos Beam products with limited notice."
Sonos also expressed concern that Amazon could charge Sonos to include Alexa in its products, "which would harm our operating results."
So far, there hasn't been any indication that Amazon could remove or modify Alexa on competing devices, like the Sonos One or Sonos Beam. But as Sonos goes public, it's required to disclose any potential risks to its business.
In some respects, removing Alexa from Sonos speakers might not make sense for Amazon. Allowing Alexa to operate freely in third-party devices like Sonos speakers means it can end up in more customer homes than if it was restricted to Amazon's Echo devices alone. Indeed, Sonos speakers offer a tempting alternative to Amazon Echo speakers for Amazon customers who want to use Alexa, as Sonos speakers offer better sound quality.
With that said, Sonos isn't exclusively offering Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, so a Sonos speaker doesn't guarantee extra Alexa presence. Soon, Sonos will add Google's Assistant and Apple's Siri, both of which has similar functionality as Alexa.
Regarding Siri, Apple users won't be able to use it as freely as one could use Alexa or Google Assistant. Apple users would need to issue commands via Apple's AirPlay 2 standard with their Apple devices, like the iPhone, iPad, or Mac computers rather than issuing commands directly to the speaker.
It's also worth nothing Google and Amazon's recent spat, where Amazon stopped featuring Google's Chromecast products - which compete directly with Amazon's own Fire TV products - because both companies couldn't come to an agreement.
Sonos' concerns with Amazon and Alexa was just one example, and the same dependencies apply to Google and Apple for their own voice assistants.