A fascinating chapter of Apple’s past has come to light, focusing on Sonos’ origins and its future. Notably, Tony Fadell, the so-called ‘father of the iPod’, sought to have Apple acquire the upscale audio company.
Fadell made numerous attempts to convince Steve Jobs of this, but Apple’s co-founder dismissed the idea, stating his preference was to sue Sonos instead…
Nick Wingfield from The Information penned an article titled Where Does Sonos Go From Here, in which he disclosed that a former Apple executive had urged Steve Jobs to purchase the audio brand. Although the article is behind a paywall, Daring Fireball relayed a particularly intriguing excerpt.
Years ago, a former senior Apple executive recounted to me that he once implored Steve Jobs, who was then CEO, to acquire Sonos. Jobs showed no interest. Much has changed since that time, but the Sonos brand still possesses sufficient appeal to attract a more powerful buyer.
John Gruber from the site noted that the reference to a former high-level executive narrowed down the list of possible candidates. He speculated it could be Scott Forstall, but also considered Tony Fadell—who was instrumental in the iPod’s design.
After reaching out, Fadell confirmed he was that executive and shared further details of the incident.
I asked Tony Fadell, and he affirmed it was indeed him, mentioning that this occurred in Sonos’ very early stages when they were preparing to launch a device featuring an obviously iPod-esque scroll wheel. Jobs wanted to take legal action (naturally). However, Fadell, after engaging with the founders, desired to acquire the company and presented his case to Jobs multiple times around 2003, to no avail. Fadell recounted his pitch as essentially “Seriously, we are all about music. Customers want this. I want this.” To which Jobs reportedly replied, “No one wants what they are selling.”
The product in question was the Song Mobile (shown below), and it is clear that it drew significant inspiration from the iPod, making Steve’s reaction somewhat understandable. However, it’s also evident that Jobs underestimated the allure of Sonos products, particularly regarding the shared customer demographic.
However, Sonos did misstep considerably with the rollout of a new app that disrupted several functionalities and significantly damaged customer trust. Their latest move to rectify this error involved dismissing the former CEO and appointing Tom Conrad as a temporary replacement.
Yet, since one of Conrad’s initial actions was to terminate the chief product officer, Gruber suggests he may be “as much ‘interim’ CEO as Steve Jobs was in 1997.”
Image: DMN composite of images by Sonos and Mike Yukhtenko on Unsplash
: We use income-earning auto affiliate links. More.
