Sonos Working on a Roku Fire TV Alternative

The company is secretly developing its own branded media player

Known for its high-end surround sound speakers, rumors are swirling that Sonos is developing a media player to compete with both Roku and Fire TV.

New Sonos Software Being Developed

To power their "Next Gen Sonos Home Theatre OS" they are currently adding another role inside their company which has fueled speculation that they are developing software to power a streaming media device of some kind.

This new position is called "Head of Partnerships, Home Theatre." The job description said: "The Head of Partnerships for our Next Generation Sonos Home Theatre OS will play a pivotal role in connecting users to the content and services they love with Sonos quality experiences they’ve come to expect."

This is exciting news because Sonos makes some pretty nice quality hardware. And undoubtedly any device they come out with will more than likely be top-notch in form and function. Offering their customers a high-performance alternative to Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV.

They are also advertising for another position which makes this even more likely to happen. This position is titled "UX Lead, Next Generation Home Theatre Experience."

When asked by the Verge, the company had this response: “As a leader in Home Theatre audio, we will continue to innovate and create products and experiences that make listening simpler and more joyful, bringing you closer to the music and content you love. We don’t have anything further to share today.”

So while Sono's is still tight-lipped about its future plans. At this point, it's all speculation on what they are actually planning on building. It could be something like what Roku offers, a surround sound speaker with a media player built-in. Or it could be an entirely new media streaming device that is stand-alone.

Sonos to Enter a Market With Already Plenty Of Great Streamers Available

It's not like there are not many great choices for media player already from Apple, Roku, Nvidia, Android, and Amazon. Having Sonos jump into the mix with their offering will still be a welcome addition.
There are three things that would help Sonos rise quickly to the top of the heap.

1. Affordability - To compete with Amazon and Roku it will need to be affordable. If they could market it as a higher quality unit and still keep the price under a hundred dollars. They would be a huge incentive for many of their current customers to choose the Sonos brand over Roku or Amazon's Fire TV.

2. Open Operating System - to quickly gain market share it needs to be a open operating system. Roku did this early on and their company grew in leaps and bounds. The more restrictive Sonos makes their media player by trying to to tightly control content on your platform, the less apealing it will be to the masses.

3. Easy to Use Interface with Minimum Ads and Clutter - Both Roku and Amazon embraced advertisments on their platform. They had no choice because their hardware loses money and is subsidized by the advertisments.

If Sonos builds an open media player and keeps it both simple to use, with zero ads, chances are it will quickly become a top seller.

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