SonosCr200
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Sonos listens to reason, drops dedicated controller in favor of smartphone apps
Sonos will halt the sale of its pricey CR200 remote control from June 1st, after acknowledging that it's been nudged into obsolescence by free software controllers for Macs, PCs, tablets and smartphones. It'll honor warranties and issue software updates for the "foreseeable future," but CEO John MacFarlane indicates the decision was inevitable, having been brewing ever since the "early days of the iPhone explosion." That never stopped his company from selling the CR200 for a hefty $349, but then again he probably deserves some respect for finally making the call. After all, rival Logitech charges a premium for its own touchscreen-equipped Duet and Touch controllers, even if you only use them once during installation and then never go near them again.
Sonos CR200 remote control's product page reveals capacitive screen, $349 price tag
Looks like Sonos has put up a staging page for its CR200 remote control along with all the specs you could ask for, and a handful of low resolution pics to boot. That 3.5-inch VGA LCD display indeed is a touchscreen, and better yet, it's capacitive. It's also a good bit smaller and lighter than its CR100 ancestor, only 2.9 x 4.5 x 0.7 inches in size and six ounces in weight -- you can probably give thanks to the aluminum case for at least some of that weight loss. Price is just a hair below $350 and that drops to $290 when you get it as part of the Bundle 250. The "add to cart" function doesn't quite seem to be working, but it can't be long now, right? Just in case the page gets pulled, we've taken the liberty of screencapping all the good parts and throwing them in the gallery below.[Thanks, Schmoop and Lowwie]
