Sonos counters Apple’s HomePod by selling two speakers for same $349 price

Apple’s HomePod hasn’t started shipping nevertheless, however Sonos is already creating moves to guard its rule over the multi-room audio market. these days the corporate proclaimed that for a restricted time, you’ll be ready to purchase 2 Sonos One good speakers for $349 — the value of one HomePod. Sonos isn’t specifying however long the promotion, that formally kicks off tomorrow, will last. when associate initial delay, the HomePod is ready to launch on Gregorian calendar month ninth.

The Sonos One has Amazon Alexa voice integration in-built, and therefore the company has secure to feature Google Assistant to the device yet someday in 2018. Users will speak out voice commands to play music on Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, and alternative services, although Apple Music isn’t among them. however very similar to the company’s alternative speakers, the Sonos One totally supports taking part in Apple Music content through the Sonos app on a smartphone or computer.

Yesterday Sonos revealed a web log post titled “Why Open Matters” that appeared directly pointed at competitory speakers from Amazon, Google, and currently Apple. “Since our youth, we’ve been agnostic regarding the sources of music and audio you'll be able to hear on Sonos, preferring to remain broad-minded and allow you to create the selection,” the corporate wrote. And indeed, Sonos permits you to integrate accounts from a large vary of music services.

But every company has a minimum of how of keeping things “open” on their various speakers. Google Home lets users stream music from unnumerable apps on their phone via Google solid (or plain recent Bluetooth). The Echo conjointly supports Bluetooth playback for services that Alexa doesn’t work with, and Apple’s AirPlay has seen wide adoption among media apps. (Sonos has aforesaid it plans to feature AirPlay two support to the Sonos One, which is able to enable you to regulate it with Siri.) however the message from Sonos is clear: the corporate insists it offers customers a lot of flexibility and fewer trouble than what’s on supply from “big technical school.”

And currently it’s obtaining come in front of the HomePod by providing 2 Sonos One speakers for $350. that provides new customers directly} path into multiroom audio right away, whereas Apple has solely aforesaid the HomePod can do multiroom “later this year.” will the HomePod surmount one Sonos One? It’s terribly doable. however bear in mind that you just will stereo try the 2 speakers you’d be obtaining here, which comparison may not compute thus well for Apple.

Last year, Apple began merchandising Sonos speakers at its retail stores. So far, the Sonos One hasn’t been enclosed therein partnership.