An AI-generated picture of a speaker connected to an iPhone
Sonos allegedly toyed round with making a speaker that will use MagSafe to connect to the again of an iPhone, however could not appear to nail down a audience.
If you happen to’re within the enterprise of creating merchandise, chances are high you will provide you with concepts that sound good on the time, however reveal themselves to be impractical, if not outright unattainable, in some unspecified time in the future within the design course of.
Apple is aware of this, as the corporate was rumored to scrap the Apple Automobile after the undertaking lacked route. And, even when it wasn’t, Apple probably realized that it will by no means be capable of promote autos at its anticipated margins.
However it’s not at all times giant, complicated tasks that do not make it to the meeting line. In keeping with The Verge, Sonos just lately scrapped an concept for a MagSafe-compatible Bluetooth speaker.
The speaker would have been a small, rectangular speaker that, when linked to an iPhone by way of MagSafe, would have routinely performed audio. It might have featured an analogous design to Apple’s now discontinued MagSafe Battery Pack.
The concept was probably born out of Sonos’ acquisition of Mayht Holding within the first half of 2022. Mayht Holding, in Sonos’ phrases, had “invented a new, revolutionary approach to audio transducers,” which might enable for smaller and lighter audio system.
Nevertheless, the undertaking went the best way of many tasks that sound like a good suggestion on the time. Particularly, Sonos could not suss out the goal market, past “Gen Z.”
Which, should you cease to consider it, makes fairly a little bit of sense. The speaker wouldn’t be most individuals’s first selection in the case of taking part in audio.
Whereas it might need sounded higher than the iPhone’s tiny, built-in audio system, there’s not a transparent concept of the place the product could be used. For watching video content material at house, most individuals will choose for a bigger display, be {that a} laptop computer, a wise TV, or a desktop with a bigger monitor.
For watching content material or listening to music on the go, you run into the rudeness issue. No one likes the particular person sitting on the DMV, listening to one thing by their telephone audio system, not to mention somebody who introduced a Bluetooth speaker to do it.
You are not going to get soiled appears to be like for utilizing AirPods Professional in public
And even listening to music is a stretch. At house, somebody would in all probability favor a bigger speaker, permitting them to maneuver freely across the room. On the go, they’d go for headphones.
This leaves a really small audience. Maybe teenagers and tweens who need a speaker for his or her bed room, or somebody who lives in a single dorm room or a studio house.
It may even have some utility for many who prefer to camp or hike, because the speaker could be compact sufficient to convey alongside in a backpack. In fact, many outside fans would dissuade individuals of this notion, because it does depend as noise air pollution.
Past that, it does not look like many individuals would have a necessity for a tiny speaker that snapped to the again of their telephone. Nevertheless, plainly Sonos realized that as a result of they wound up nixing the thought in some unspecified time in the future.
Sonos has gone by vital downsizing in recent times. In 2023, Sonos laid off 7% of its employees and pulled again its actual property presence. Extra just lately — this previous Wednesday, in truth — the corporate introduced that it will lay off a further 12%, or roughly 200 individuals.
CEO Tom Conrad mentioned that the corporate had grown to some extent the place collaboration was tough and could be higher off “reorganizing into flatter, smaller, and more focused teams.” He notes that being smaller and extra targeted ought to assist the corporate prioritize its work, as current tasks suffered from a scarcity of dedication.
If you happen to’re bummed that Sonos’ MagSafe speaker by no means made it to market, there are some options. Scosche has the BoomCan MS, a $30 speaker that magnetically attaches to iPhone.
Amazon additionally options dozens of audio system that purport to do the identical factor. Their usually alarmingly low value level in all probability provides you an concept of the sound high quality you are going to get.
