Om Malik has six questions for Sonos

We now officially owe Om Malik, the master of GigaOm.com and telecom writer for Business 2.0 magazine, a favor. Last week he sat down with Tom Cullen, vice president of marketing for Sonos (a Santa Barbara, California-based start-up working on a wireless digital music system which may or may not have derived some of its inspiration from Apple's iPod) and came back with this short and sweet Q&A for us:

Q: What's the big deal about Sonos and why should anyone care?

A: Because traditional stereo is at risk from the Sonus Digital Music System.
   
Q: That doesn't really mean anything. These digital consumer devices are pretty darn difficult for Joe Six Pack.
A: I agree. We have focused very much on the set-up, in fact making it an automatic set-up. You can monitor anything from this little wireless controller from anywhere in  the house.
   
Q: What wireless standard do you use?
A: It is a proprietary mesh wireless networking technology that uses the 2.4 GHz spectrum.
 
Q: Of all the start-ups you could do, why focus on making a music player, for God's sake?
A: Well, all of us wanted this system for ourselves. And we built it, and now we have a great product that is easy to use and has nice margins.

Q: I heard you were being sued by Apple. Any truth to that rumor?
A: There is no truth to a rumor Sonos being sued by Apple.  Sonos is not being sued by any company for any reason.

Q: When will the product be out in the market? 
A: In October 2004… seriously.

[janiero @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

for the price of the base Sonos system ($1199 from http://www.sonos.com/products/pricing/ ) i can buy 8 airport expresses. heck, i could buy an iMac for $250 on ebay to dedicate to playing music and still buy 6 airport expresses for that price. hey, i could buy an iMac, a PocketPC, and a wireless flash card on ebay as well as 5 airport expresses, dedicate the iMac to playing music, and VNC on the PocketPC to connect to the iMac from anywhere in the house. plus all that stuff uses open standards (sans the music streaming of course).

basically, i don't think this thing is priced appropriately.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

Yeah, they're totally going to get their asses sued off for the little wheel thing.

Either that or they're going to have to pay some sort of huge licensing fee.

[Willy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

This will NOT work. Adoption will happen at about $100/room. Looks like a wireless Bose "wave" radio to me. No thanks!

[brocked @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

yes, Apple invented the wheel, the pixel, the mouse, and transparent plastic

[Jim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

For the Sonos Bundle it is not 1,999 as Willy put it, it is 1,199. That is a significant difference.

[elgordo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

looks pretty cool to me, and the major drawback to the airport express is that you can only stream to one location at a time...plus this has a remote (good looking one too). that's a hefty price tag to swallow, but if it works i would definately consider. nothing else out there that looks as nice. yet.

[Dan Spielman @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

Looks like you can only plug 2 speakers into the back of this puppy which is just stupid because 5.1 stero systems are so common these days.

[Mega @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

This product looks like it is targeted for digital music playing only. I will definitely consider it since I am tired of using the Mac to control my music in the living room. Plus, looks like I can get two rooms of music instead of just one.

Has anyone seen this Sonos yet in living person?

[J006 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

Saw the system at a home show and just had the demo at my house. The ability to zone all the rooms together wirelessly is a great feature. Additionally, having the controller control all the zones is a great feature too. I'm getting one and the sound output is fine. It is a music system only and not a substitute for a home theater system. I have a vast CD library and having it converted to MP3 format to run via ethernet to a zone player, then wirelessly to the other zones in the house is the number one selling point. The second selling point is that each zoneplayer can be wirelessly connected, with each zone player wired to the speakers ensures a clean crisp sound. I'm sold on it.

[jack @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

Having now played extensively with this product, I am unable to find any faults. It seems to work flawlessly and sounds very good. It is especially notable that when the same stream is played in multiple rooms, it is completely in sync when one moves between the rooms, which also seems to be true regardless of other network traffic. We have tested it in places where other wireless devices have had very limited range and found Sonos to be an unexpected long distance performer. I find it very refreshing to find a product that does what is stated or better and yet is being further tweaked to be as close to flawless as humanly possible before release. It also seems to be the best (and easiest) solution for those wishing to have access to their music in multiple rooms without the need for wires. IF someone knows of any other multi-room streaming player system that doesn't require the use of a computer or TV interface, I'd like to know about it. Kudos to Sonos.

[DiveAtlas.com @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

It's far from just a networked bose waveradio. It doesn't have speakers. It let's you hook up your own speakers. Also, it has an audio out if you want to go 5.1 with it. Stereo with a subwoofer is fine for me with music. I wish they had one with just the audio out for less money. I'd like one with an integrated amp for one room and would like to do audio out to my Hoe Theater system in another room.

[DiveAtlas.com @ Dec 19th 2005 12:04AM]

It's far from just a networked bose waveradio. It doesn't have speakers. It let's you hook up your own speakers. Also, it has an audio out if you want to go 5.1 with it. Stereo with a subwoofer is fine for me with music. I wish they had one with just the audio out for less money. I'd like one with an integrated amp for one room and would like to do audio out to my Hoe Theater system in another room.