Sonos Returns to Promos With Weeklong Deal on Roam, Move

Sonos is skimming 20% off the price of its portable Move ($399) and Roam ($179) voice-controlled speakers in a summer promotion running through June 12, it emailed Wednesday. It’s one of the few promotions the company has run since supply chain constraints began straining inventories during the COVID-19 demand surge. Sonos Chief Financial Officer Brittany Bagley said on a November earnings call (see 2111180049) the company wouldn't run its typical Q4 holiday promotions due to manufacturing shutdowns and component shortages that were expected to continue into 2022. Also Wednesday, the company rolled out via a software update Sonos Voice Control, the on-device voice service built from its purchase of Snips in 2019. The control feature, voiced by actor Giancarlo Esposito, works alongside Amazon Alexa, and is accessible via the trigger phrase, “Hey, Sonos.” Sonos continues to offer Google Assistant control, but the Sonos and Google voice assistants can’t be used together, a customer support rep told us. We were able to use Sonos Voice Control on our Alexa-enabled Sonos One speaker Thursday, but we could use Sonos to access music only from our Apple Music account, not Spotify or Pandora. The company said last month it will add control for other music services in the future. The Sonos community webpage lists commands available for Sonos Voice Control.