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Summary
- Sonos brings Hugo Barra to its board as long-time director Mike Volpi steps down.
- Barra brings a wealth of experience from Google, Xiaomi, and Meta.
- This could signal a shift for the company as it pivots back to creating exceptional audio products.
Sonos has had a rough year, with executive shakeups, failed video players, and a disastrous new app rollout. Sonos may be turning things around at the highest levels, however.
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The company announced it has brought on former Android executive Hugo Barra as long-time board director Mike Volpi steps down. This marks Barra’s return to consumer tech after disappearing for a few years into the world of AI and biotech.
Barra brings deep consumer tech experience to the board
Barra has an impressive resume full of experience in both hardware and software at Google, Xiaomi, and Meta. He is currently the head of product at an AI startup.
He was instrumental in Android’s development during its early years, as he led product management at Google until 2013. He jumped to Xiaomi that year to oversee the Chinese smartphone giant’s global expansion. From there, he moved to Meta in late 2017 to head up Oculus VR, having an enormous impact on the development of the Oculus Quest headset. He then launched his own biotech and AI startup.
Sonos, meanwhile, has had a rocky few years. It faced a storm of criticism last year over an app redesign that ended in the resignation of the company’s CEO. When it scrapped its planned streaming box, codenamed Pinewood, people began to abandon the company. To be fair, Pinewood would have entered a market already saturated with Android streaming boxes , but the decision left a bad taste in the mouths of Sonos’ fans.
A shift back to Sonos’ strengths
Mike Volpi has served on the Sonos board for 15 years and was instrumental in bringing the company from startup to public brand. His departure for personal reasons opened the door to bringing Barra on board. The company will most likely fall back onto its strengths as an exceptional audio maker.
Given Barra’s background, we’ll likely see Sonos’ future products infused with artificial intelligence. We could even see Sonos audio technology joined to VR. The thought of an Android XR -powered Samsung headset with room-filling Sonos surround sound fills us with excitement. Even if that isn’t a thing, at least it looks like Sonos may finally be shifting back to what it does best.
