Tech and AI must advance user experience, from backstage: Sonos’ Rennie Addabbo
Sonos sells two and a half times more of the higher priced Arc system, than the more affordable Beam in India, which points to a willingness of consumers to spend for an experience they prefer
The audio hardware space is increasingly resembling a crucial trend, common to the smartphone ecosystem. Annual, often hurried upgrades for headphones, speakers and home theatre systems. It must not be easy for Sonos, the American audio company, to not follow the competition. The company’s new home theatre system, the Arc Ultra, is an example — it follows the Arc, the then flagship launched in 2020, almost five years later and the company says it has done enough to give it the ‘Ultra’ moniker instead of ’2’ or something that simply represents a generational change. In a conversation with HT, Rennie Addabbo, who is General Manager for Sonos APAC, insists it underlines the company’s focus on longevity rather than a quick churn with new products. That’s what also defined Sonos’ foray into the headphones space a few months ago.
The Arc Ultra is also testing the conventional wisdom that has defined audio speakers till now. Most traditional speakers use a single cone or dome-shaped diaphragm to displace air and produce sound. The diaphragm is typically attached to a voice coil that moves within a magnetic field created by a single magnet — the coil and magnet assembly (that is, the motor) is positioned at the centre of the diaphragm, driving its motion. Instead of one large driver, Sound Motion uses two opposing diaphragms powered by four compact motors (each with dual voice coils). The diaphragms move in opposite directions, canceling mechanical vibrations that could distort sound or rattle the enclosure. It has advantage of compact size, increased displacement and therefore better lower frequencies too. HT is yet to test the Sonos Arc, and the Sound Motion technology.
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Rennie Addabbo talks to HT about this new technology, headphones as a new category for Sonos, how the company approaches India as a market, and how to best leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to define user experience. Edited excerpts.
Q. It is intriguing that Sonos doesn’t annually release product updates, which often run the risk of being incremental. What defines this methodology, and how difficult is it to stay steadfast when competition’s approach is largely contrary?
Rennie Addabbo: This approach has been a core part of the way we built and engineer products with the consumer at the centre, and that has been the way from the very beginning for Sonos. It’s been consistent from the start and consistent today. I don’t see it ever changing, and we do that very deliberately because we know folks who are investing in a premium audio experience, need to get amazing value for that engineering. The amount of engineering we put in our products exceeds any other offering in the market, when you compare to the value we provide and the price that we put our products at.
I’ve always been really proud of, from a Sonos point of view, is the fact that our products are still available for sale many years later. In fact, we started our home theatre line with our largest soundbar was called the PlayBar. It was still for sale at the same price, eight years later. It’s very unusual in consumer electronics. The customer and their experience, anchored in software, means that we can also provide software updates over time that make a product better, even years later. That makes a lot of sense, given the unique nature of Sonos, to continue to do that.
Q. Headphones is one of the new categories for Sonos, and is there more diversification on the horizon? Is it more a case of timing the entry, or simply about developing the best possible product and letting consumers make their choice?
RA: A lot of the work we do globally also revolves around listening to our customers, and they’re very vocal about what they’d like to see from us, and it’s great to have passionate owners. There is a lot of consumer user research and that tends to give an indication of the direction for our strategy and roadmap. An example of this is that our customers, for quite some time, had been asking for us to get into the lifestyle headphone category, and were are very glad that we’re able to do that with the Ace. You’ll also see with the Sonos Arc Ultra is that what we do is look for evolutionary, revolutionary change as we move from one generation and step up to the next.
Q. Tell us a bit more about redesigned transducer on which the Sound Motion technology is based - what was the approach to redesigning the very core of the audio experience, considering no one’s ever thought of this before, and how crucial will it be to build with this?
RA: We acquired a company called Mayst (this was in 2022) and their specific intellectual property as well as and technology was around the movement of the transducer. On the back of that acquisition, that’s now Sonos intellectual property. Here we are, about three years later, with the first representation of that technology in a product. The Arc Ultra has the ability to disperse movement of the transducers, since sound needs space. The more space and air you can move, the better the sound. So that ability to get more bass with less space, is revolutionary. That is an advancement in technology that we’ve not seen for 100 years in transducers.
Q. Is there a vision to further reduce the size to make this technology more relevant for smaller form factors, such as multi room speakers as well?
RA: We now have this technology. We’ve got good feedback on it, in other markets. It’s now for our engineers and product teams, as they work through consumer research, to say we have a sense of where we could go with this technology and where does the market also want us to go with this technology. There can definitely can be many form factors, and not just home theatre in the future.
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Q. How big is Sonos’ footprint in India, and what are the investment plans for the next few years?
RA: An important part of our footprint in India, at this time, is a really strong installation channel. More than 50% of our business in India comes through our installation channel, something that’s near and dear to my heart. It’s at the core of what Sonos does, which is understand multi-room setups and sound. Sonos throughout the home is doing really well and integrates smart home technology with audio and entertainment. We have a strong presence in India. We have 75 stores at the moment, including consumer electronics stores, and of course online retailers such as Amazon. We are keen on building on the early success we’ve seen.
There is a Sonos Experience store in Mumbai, and it’s something that we’ll continue to look at because we feel it’s important to have that direct engagement and contact with Indian consumers. We’ll continue to invest and we’ll continue to engage with Indian consumers. India is a prioritised market and as we think about geographic expansion worldwide, India is foremost in our minds as we think about markets to invest in.
Q. How do you see India as a market, and more to that point, the soundbar portfolio now has the Arc Ultra as the flagship. How important is it to cover all price points, and which products see the most traction in India?
RA: The attempt is to consistently balance the amount of engineering that goes into a product which should make sense for customers, and not over-engineer for the sake of it. That corresponds with the best possible price. If I am to compare to other players in the market, it’s often seen in the audio space in particular, that there might be much higher price points based on the amount of engineering in a product. We’ll always look at experience and value for money, in the home theatre space.
For example, the Arc Ultra, the Beam and Ray. Considering those price points and where they sit in the market, they give an opportunity for buyers at an entry price point level, an opportunity to the ability to enjoy the Sonos experience. The mid price point Beam is also there for the right sort of size TV and home environment, while products such as the Arc and Arc Ultra are for large TVs and rooms. That’s a really deliberate position from us from a product point of view to make sure that we are as accessible as possible, for the Indian market.
We have an interesting observation on how Indians are shopping for home theatre systems. Sonos sells two and a half times more of the higher priced Arc, than we do the more affordable Beam in India. That is a trend I don’t see in any other part of Asia, or even in the US, which is one of our stronger markets. That tells us is we’ve found an Indian consumer that resonates with Sonos, and the way we build our product set for Indian consumers and those that value premium experience in their home. It is a validation for us that what we’re doing, makes sense to Indian
Also Read:Sonos’ affordability pursuit with the Ray soundbar leaves a lot on the table
Q. What next for Sonos’ legacy of wireless audio innovation, and how does the advance of AI play a role in that? Would you say users want to actively engage with AI particularly when it comes to good sound, or they’d prefer a more hands-off approach defined by a sound signature they recognise?
RA: All forms of intelligence have the ability to improve the experience. We are not just a hardware company, software is equally important. It is an opportunity to smartly improve the experience for the customer. in terms of the intuitive nature of how you use our experience, nature of the app and its connection to hardware. The global product teams are looking at all forms of intelligence and how that adds to the experience. It’s multi layered opportunity for us.
