Apple’s Renewed Pitch for Our TVs

Apple’s Renewed Pitch for Our TVs

While HomeView was the most noteworthy announcement coming out of Apple’s home “experience” in NYC last week, Apple’s renewed play for our TVs deserves attention.

As part of last week’s announcements, the updated Apple TV 4K will support up to four HomePods in a surround sound setup. Both HomePod (2nd gen) and HomePod mini 2 will work in such setups as long as matching pairs are used (i.e. a HomePod and HomePod mini 2 cannot be paired together as front or rear speakers). True surround sound capability marks the most aggressive move from Apple yet in going after home theater setups.

When Apple announced four-speaker surround sound support for HomePods and Apple TV 4K, Sonos was the first company that came to mind. In recent years, Sonos had placed a big bet on suppling speakers and related equipment for in-home theater environments. In some ways, in-home theaters were the thing keeping Sonos speaker sales afloat. It has been incredibly difficult to sell people on $250+ stationary speakers for the home using a pure audio consumption sales pitch. Sonos was right to focus on

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