The streaming revolution shows no signs of stopping, with some of the world’s biggest tech firms continuing to make devices aimed at letting homes tune into TV without needing a dish or aerial stuck to their chimneys. Sky has just announced the launch of its new, more pixel-packed Glass Gen 2 TV, Apple has its top-rated TV box, Google just launched a new TV Streamer device, and the Fire TV Stick range remains unstoppable, with millions still sold every year.
Sadly, it appears this telly boom isn’t going quite so well for everyone. It’s long been rumoured that the audio team at Sonos was set to release its own streamer this year.
The project, which was apparently codenamed Pinewood, has been rumoured to be in the works since 2023 but has now been put on ice and might never see the light of day.
That’s according to a new report from US tech website The Verge.
Sonos has been in a fair amount of turmoil in recent times. The popular brand faced a huge backlash after it released a major update to its iPhone and Android app that caused its speakers to lose features and access to music platforms along with people complaining about slow load times and even things stopping working entirely.
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The problems got so bad its CEO, Patrick Spence, stood down from his role and sent a message apologising for the issues.
“I want to begin by personally apologizing for disappointing you,” Spence said.
“There isn’t an employee at Sonos who isn’t pained by having let you down.”
Now it seems its new boss wants staff to focus on other projects and not the ‘Pinewood’ box.
According to the The Verge’s report, interim CEO Tom Conrad recently held an all-staff call where he announced the cancellation and redeployment of teams to other projects. It’s unclear what that means, but perhaps Sonos feels it needs to get its speaker business back on track before tackling something completely new.
A Sonos TV box certainly sounded exciting but it seems homes across the world may never get the chance to see or use it.
In response to the report, Sonos told The Verge, “We don’t comment on our roadmap, but as has been previously announced we have a long-standing relationship with The Trade Desk and that relationship continues.”
For those not in the know, The Trade Desk is the software firm that Project Pinewood was expected to use and run on.
Maybe Sonos will bring this gadget back from the dead in the future. Watch this space!