Sonos CEO claims to have discussed Siri integration with Apple
According to Sonos CEO Patrick Spence, Apple has reportedly had conversations with the California-based speaker brand regarding opening Siri to third parties, suggesting discussions between the companies regarding bringing the virtual assistant to Sonos speakers.
Speaking with The Verge following the announcement that AirPlay 2 support will arrive for owners of the Sonos One, Play:5, and Playbase speakers, Spence said Apple “needs to decide if they’re going to be opening Siri to third parties”, claiming it is a topic that has been discussed between both companies.
Although the interview didn’t specify if the conversation was before the launch of HomePod, and how deep into conversations Sonos and Apple went into, it does suggest Apple has considered for the first time ever, letting third parties integrate Siri into their products.
I think, at this point, Apple needs to decide if they’re going to be opening Siri to third parties, but we have a good relationship with Apple, and we’ve had some conversations on this and look forward to having more.
Apple officially began stocking Sonos speakers online and in Apple retail locations in late 2016, prior to the arrival of HomePod. Most recently Sonos introduced Beam, a brand-new Alexa-enabled sound-bar retailing for $399.
Although the prospect of Siri branching out to Sonos speakers sounds exciting, it is quite hard to imagine. Apple likes to keep themselves to themselves and protect their software from others. Only time will tell if Siri will make its-way across to Sonos speakers, however; considering Apple has HomePod its likely it wishing to keep its own branded speaker as the only device to include Siri support.