Sprint Pushing ‘Premium Audio’ With Line of Bluetooth Harman Speakers
Sprint will “break into the premium audio scene” with a Bluetooth wireless speaker system called Onyx Studio, made by Harman Kardon, that will be sold exclusively in the U.S. through Sprint stores, Sprint said Monday. Nearly half of mobile phone owners listen to music services on their device, said Sprint, citing data from Pew Research Center, and Harman and Sprint want to capitalize on the trend.
A Harman spokesman confirmed that Sprint stores are the exclusive retailer for the Onyx Studio in the U.S. and that Harman won’t sell the unit in its own flagship store in New York. Outside of the U.S., the Onyx Studio will be distributed through partner companies including wireless carrier SoftBank in Japan and distributors Trikomsel in Indonesia and Brightstar in Europe and Latin America, the spokesman said. Harman Kardon sells a similar version of the product, the Onyx, on its U.K. site for 429 euros. The Onyx Studio begins selling at Sprint U.S. stores Tuesday for $399, the companies said.
The Onyx is a style departure from typical JBL/Harman-branded Bluetooth speaker systems. The circular 11-inch-wide enclosure has four speakers driven by 60 watts of power and includes dual aluminum passive radiators and digital signal processing. The unit comes with a stand and operates for five hours on a single battery charge, said Harman Kardon.
Harman Kardon doesn’t have other exclusive products in its lineup that were designed for a single retailer, but the company “would be open to such arrangements,” the Harman spokesman told us. Harman Kardon’s sister brand, JBL, sells Bluetooth speakers called PowerUp that charge smartphones using near field communications. Those speakers are sold as an accessory for select Nokia phones in AT&T and Microsoft stores, but there’s no exclusive retail arrangement. Harman is “not necessarily” looking to develop additional retail relationships with individual mobile carriers, the spokesman said, “but we certainly see the mobile carriers channel as an important one for Harman.” The continued growing popularity of smartphones as a music playback source “is fueling the demand for higher quality audio devices to support this,” he said.
Sprint called the Onyx announcement the first in a series of product plans to bring “premium audio to mobile devices.” On whether the other product plans in the pipeline include Harman Kardon, a Sprint spokeswoman told us, “We look forward to continue to our relationship with Harman Kardon, but can’t comment on future products and/or services that have yet to launch.” According to the Sprint news release, plans for premium audio offerings call for headphones and more speakers.
On the content side, Sprint is hoping to monetize audio further with Sprint Zone, an app that offers free and premium music services including Spotify, Slacker Radio, iHeartRadio, Shazam, Sprint Music Plus and Rumpus. Customers can pay for Spotify and Slacker Radio directly on their Sprint bill, it said. Sprint is using the music peg as an additional selling point for its unlimited data service.