The American consumer electronics company Sonos and Swedish furniture retail giant Ikea have reportedly entered into a collaboration agreement in a bid to introduce a new line of speakers. As per trusted sources, the new Wi-Fi bookshelf speaker will be available for $99, while the Wi-Fi table lamp speaker will be available for $179.
The Symfonisk-brand lamps & speakers are said to be the integration of Sonos’ extraordinary sound expertise with Ikea’s smart home portfolio. Like the traditional Sonos speakers, the new products will work with the Sonos application and play music from Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora. The new devices will expectedly be lacking microphones for enabling built-in Google Assistant or Alexa integration, although the Google Assistant support is in the works, says Sonos.
Sources further reported that the lamp has Wi-Fi functionality to get connected to Sonos. In addition, a Wi-Fi bulb can be screwed in the lamp to add functionality for changing the color of the light, remotely dimming it or turning it on or off by means of an application or voice assistant.
The Verge reports Sonos CEO Patrick Spence to have affirmed in a recent interview that the products are to include unique features which both the companies will take pride in. Emphasizing on the contribution of both the firms, Ikea’s Global Business leader Björn Block claimed that Ikea and Sonos have both put in their best efforts in the development of these devices.
Reports mention that the lamp comprises features including two class-D digital amplifiers, one mid-woofer, one tweeter and a sealed enclosure. Whereas, the bookshelf speaker has two class-D digital amplifiers, one tweeter, one mid-woofer and a ported enclosure.
It has been reported that both the speakers will support AirPlay 2 to stream directly from Mac or iOS devices. The new speakers, which are to be offered in white and black, will be available at all Ikea stores and websites from this August.
