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Sonos sends out mysterious invite to launch of new product, teasing possible speaker or soundbar

'You're better than this'

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 03 May 2018 16:37 BST
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A pair of SONOS speakerss on display between product a the Kanye West temporary PABLO store at The Galleria on August 19, 2016 in Houston, Texas
A pair of SONOS speakerss on display between product a the Kanye West temporary PABLO store at The Galleria on August 19, 2016 in Houston, Texas

Sonos is about to launch its next product. But it's not clear what it is.

The company will hold a mysterious event at the beginning of June.

A range of different rumours have appears in recent weeks, suggesting that new products are on the horizon. Official filings appear to suggest that the company is working on a new speaker for the TV, for instance, which might include microphones for voice control and the ability to use those to control the television it is attached to.

Filings show the speaker as having the codename "S14" and describe it as "a high-performance all-in-one home theater smart speaker and part of Sonos’ home sound system". It also shows it with an HDMI port, which previous speakers haven't had and could allow for new kinds of audio technology and control.

If true, the updated soundbar or similar product would be the second speaker with voice control built in. Towards the end of last year, the company released the One – which has Amazon Alexa included and so can be controlled using only your voice.

It will also be the third Sonos speaker specifically made to go in the living room. It makes both the Playbar and Playbase already – and though the soundbase was only announced last year, the soundbar is now more than five years old.

The invitation sent out to the media appears to add more to those rumours. It depicts a whole set of old-looking remotes, with the message "You're better than this" written next to them.

The event will happen on 6 June, in San Francisco, according to the invitation.

By coincidence, that is very near to Apple's WWDC event – which happens on 4 June in San Jose – and the two companies have had an up-and-down relationship over the last year or so. Sonos announced that it will use Apple's newest speaker technology last week, for instance, but the two companies had little jibes at each other after Apple announced that it would enter the smart speaker market.

The speaker could come at an important time for Sonos, which has been rumoured to be readying to go public in an IPO as soon as this summer.

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