Sonos is going to release a smart speaker that can support multiple voice assistants

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Speaker manufacturer Sonos will release a smart speaker that will support multiple voice assistants and music services, a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing shows.

In the last year, both Amazon and Google have opened their voice assistants to third-party hardware developers, and Sonos is one of a handful of companies that will take advantage.

We first learned the company was planning to release a smart speaker late last year, but until now, we assumed that the device would be powered by a voice assistant the company developed in-house — an approach most other players in the space have taken.

Support for multiple voice assistants could give the device a broad potential customer base, as long as the device's hardware is as appealing as competitors'.

The device could appeal to more potential buyers than its competitors. Most firms target their smart speakers toward existing user bases — Apple's HomePod is directed toward iPhone users, for example — which somewhat narrows their audiences. But since the Sonos speaker can run multiple voice assistants, it's one of the only devices on the market that could appeal to both Google and Amazon loyalists. And that audience is massive — Amazon has 85 million Prime subscribers around the world, and 1.3 billionglobal consumers use an Android OS smartphone per month. Further, this flexibility might also appeal to a swath of consumers, outside of Amazon's and Google's user bases, who want the ability to use whichever voice assistant they prefer.
But that advantage may only exist if the speaker's quality matches that of the Echo and Google Home. Loyal Amazon and Google users who don't yet own a smart speaker might consider the Sonos speaker since it can run their preferred voice assistant, but may not be willing to if the quality of the device itself isn't up to par. That means that, to take advantage of this large potential customer base, the aesthetic appeal and speaker quality of Sonos' speaker will need to match that of the Google Home and Echo products. However, given Sonos' background in manufacturing speakers with high-quality audio, that might not be too hard of a goal to achieve.

But this might not be a competitive differentiator for long. The smart speaker market is about to get far more crowded — in addition to Sonos, Facebook, Microsoft, and Samsung will all be releasing devices in the next few months. And since Amazon and Google have both released software development kits that allow manufacturers to build the companies' voice assistants into any piece of hardware, these firms that will soon be entering the market could also build multiple voice assistants into their devices, mitigating Sonos' advantage. To thrive in the long term, Sonos might need to further differentiate its device from the others on the market.

Smart speakers — Amazon's Echo, for example — are the latest device category poised to take a chunk of our increasingly digital lives. These devices are made primarily for the home and execute a user's voice commands via an integrated digital assistant. These digital assistants can play music, answer questions, and control other devices within a user's home, among other things.

The central question for this new product category is not when they will take off, but which devices will rise to the top. To answer this question, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, surveyed our leading-edge consumer panel, gathering exclusive data on Amazon's recently released Echo Show and Echo Look, as well as Apple's HomePod.

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, has put together a Smart Speaker report that analyzes the market potential of the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod. Using exclusive survey data, this report evaluates each device's potential for adoption based on four criteria: awareness, excitement, usefulness, and purchase intent. Finally, the report draws some inferences from our data about the direction the smart speaker market could take from here.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Amazon's new Echo Show is the big winner — it has mass-market appeal and looks like it will take off. The combination of usefulness and excitement will drive consumers to buy the Echo Show. The Echo Look, though, seems like it will struggle to attract that same level of interest.
Apple’s HomePod looks likely to find a place in the smart speaker market but won’t dominate its space like the iPhone or iPad did.
The smart speaker market will evolve rapidly in the next few years, with more devices featuring screens, a variety of more focused products emerging, and eventually, the voice assistant moving beyond the smart speaker.

In full, the report:

Showcases exclusive survey data on initial consumer reactions to the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod.
Highlights the aims and strategies of major players in the smart speaker market.
Provides analysis on the direction this nascent market will take and the opportunity for companies considering a move into the space.

To get the full report, subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now

You can also purchase and download the full report from our research store.

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