Because of increased competition, Sonos wireless speakers need a new leadership to guide them through the market.
In 2002, John MacFarlane together with Craig Shelburne, Trung Mai, and Tom Cullen opened in California a company that was about to become a worldwide success. For 15 years, MacFarlane activated as the CEO of the company and managed the production of popular smart speakers. Under his leadership, the company cooperated and acquired important businesses to their portfolio, some of them being Amazon Music, Spotify, MOG or QQ Music. However, the recently increased competition forced MacFarlane to step down as Sonos CEO.
On Tuesday, the New York Times announced the resignation of MacFarlane from both his CEO position and his title of a board member. The management has already found a replacement for him, namely Patrick Spence. He worked for BlackBerry as managing director, and the company has great hopes for him. The new trends propelled Sonos in the middle of increased competition. The organization now needs guidance to incorporate new technologies successfully.
The latest edition of CES 2017 made it clear that the tech industry is all about smart homes this year. Even common appliances such as fridges and trash cans have gone smart to serve the household better and faster. The new direction of the tech industry is to become able to read minds thanks to Artificial Intelligence. The companies want the 2017 home to attend the needs of its owner before the owners even realise what they want.
Patrick Spence wants to sync Sonos completely to these new tech trends. He already made public his plans to improve certain aspects for customers. Thus, his first improvement will be to allow consumers to listen to their favorite songs just by calling out artists or tracks. This will be possible through services like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.
With the new leadership, Sonos wants to address the issue of pressing increased competition. The year of 2015 was a prosperous year for the company with a total revenue of almost $1 billion. Moreover, last year the company noticed a certain behavior among tech consumers. More than half of Sonos customers subscribed to services with unlimited music. This turning point needed a new leadership for the company to be able to make the most of it. Based on these data, the company has to act immediately. Consumers are in need of a wireless speaker that can sync to their music apps, such as Sonos products. Patrick Spence has the mission to help the company seize this major opportunity.
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