How did this happen?
TIME Magazine has named the Sonos Ace headphones one of the best inventions of 2024. But, it seems consumers aren’t as impressed.
With lukewarm sales and technical issues hurting its launch, Sonos’ high-end headphones face a tough situation that no award can easily fix.
TIME Recognition for Sonos Ace
For over 20 years, TIME Magazine has been showing off the world’s most innovative products in its Best Inventions list.
This year, the Sonos Ace made the Entertainment & Gaming category as “Wireless Headphone Luxury,” joining 200 other new inventions of 2024 in different categories.
TIME didn’t just pick these randomly. Their editors and writers around the world looked for nominations, with a special focus on growing areas like AI and green energy. Each product had to prove itself in originality, effectiveness, ambition, and real-world impact.
So, they guarantee that picking the Sonos Ace has gone through a tedious review.
As TIME points out, they weren’t just impressed by how the Sonos Ace look. They also praised the Ace’s sound quality and active noise cancellation, along with its thoughtful design that took 25 months to perfect.
The Ace’s “TV Audio Swap” feature also caught their attention.
With this, users can just press and hold a button, and their TV sound moves from their Sonos soundbar right to their headphones for private listening.
Sales Struggles and Technical Issues
While the TIME recognition is impressive, it’s a bright spot in what’s otherwise been a challenging year for the Ace.
Industry reports say Sonos has sold around 200,000 units through September 2024, pushing the company to cut production targets from 1 million units a year to about 100,000.
In comparison, Apple’s AirPods Max sold around 1.5 million units in its first year. This just shows how tough the high-end headphone market is for Sonos.
Sonos initially planned to crank out 2,500 headphones every day, aiming for up to a million units annually. Now? They’re down to making just 250 pairs daily, barely reaching 100,000 units a year.
But the headphones aren’t fully to blame. It’s more because the Ace’s launch got tangled up in a software nightmare that sent ripples through the whole company.
Users found themselves dealing with all sorts of headaches: missing sleep timers, music randomly stopping, and some couldn’t even control their Sonos systems at all.
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence acknowledged the problem, saying the company’s push for a fast app rollout “backfired” as serious bugs appeared. But, as Sonos considers price adjustments and explores the possibility of a second model, questions linger about its ability to weather the storm.