Sonos just sent out invitations to an October 4th media event in New York City. The invite comes just a few hours after Dave Zatz discovered reference to a Sonos smart speaker in the FCC.
Sonos to announce new smart speaker on October 4th
Expect support for multiple voice platforms and music services
Expect support for multiple voice platforms and music services
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The speaker, codenamed S13, features integrated voice control and far field microphones just like Amazon’s Echo speaker lineup. Uniquely, the S13 also lists support for multiple voice platforms in addition to multiple music services. The FCC filing also included the graphic below which you can see hinted at in the lower-right corner of the invitation. Otherwise, that Rolling Stones-esque mouth makes it pretty clear that this event will focus on voice.
Sonos has been criticized for being late to the smart speaker game. But that looks like it’s about to change in a big way if what we’ve seen in the FCC comes to fruition on stage in October. Will Sonos free us from Apple, Google, and Amazon ecosystem lock-in by letting us choose between Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa voice assistants as it does with their respective music services? You’ll have to tune in on October 4th to find out.
Sonos
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