Sonos CEO explains why company killed Apple TV 4K competitor before launch

In addition to launching new products, Sonos has publicly acknowledged its defunct hardware project that would have competed with the Apple TV 4K set-top box.

Sonos lacked the software resources to compete with Apple TV 4K

Sonos CEO Tom Conrad acknowledged the shuttered video hardware efforts in an interview with Chris Welch at Bloomberg:

He also squashed plans for Sonos to move into video for the first time with a set-top box, codenamed Pinewood, that would have competed against products like Apple Inc.’s Apple TV 4K and other streamers. During the interview, Conrad offered the first public confirmation of Pinewood’s existence and subsequent cancellation.

There was a date on the calendar for the release, but there wasn’t a plan for enough staffing to get it done, he said. Even if Sonos had stuck to the original goal, Pinewood “wouldn’t be out now,” he said.

More specifically, Conrad explains that Sonos simply lacked the software resources required to make a video streaming box the right way:

“Whatever you might think about that — good idea, bad idea — we just didn’t have enough software resources to execute it well,” he said.”

For Tom Conrad, it was the state of Sonos software at the time that elevated him to the CEO position in the first place. Saying no to tackling an all-new platform with video was probably a no-brainer decision.

The Sonos streaming video box was reportedly expected to be priced between $200 and $400. Apple TV 4K, which is considered premium in the streaming hardware space, is currently priced from $129.

Apple last updated the Apple TV 4K hardware in November 2022. Since the product has turned three-years-old, customers have been more vocal about the desire for the next hardware revision.

What do you think of the Sonos decision to not compete with the Apple TV 4K? How does it compare to Apple’s current streaming video box situation to you?