Sonos is jacking up prices on a slew of its high-ticket speakers, and says the UK’s Brexit-linked currency woes are to blame.
In a statement, the company revealed that it would be increasing prices by up to 25% in response to the dwindling value of the UK pound when traded against the US dollar. The good news is that you won’t have to start paying the new prices until Thursday, February 23 2017, so there’s still some time to grab Sonos at the old price.
Here’s some of the new pricing
- Sonos Play:1 – WAS £169 | NOW £199
- Sonos Play:3 – WAS £259 | NOW £299
- Sonos Play:5 – WAS £429 | NOW £499
- Sonos Connect – WAS £279 | NOW £349
- Sonos Connect:Amp – WAS £399 | NOW £499
“We pay for everything we make in US dollars. Over recent months, there has been a significant change on the US dollar to GBP exchange rate,” said California-based Sonos in a statement.
It continued: “As a result, our existing pricing has become unsustainable and, like many other companies, we have to increase prices for all products priced in GBP.”
Sonos’ Play:3, which launched in 2011, is getting a £40 price hike
This is certainly a bitter blow to consumers, many of whom will be questioning the fairness of price rises given the age of some Sonos products.
For instance, the Sonos Play:1 launched at a price of £169 back in 2013, has yet to be superseded, and still retails at the same price. So the fact that Sonos is increasing the price of a four-year-old speaker that has never had an official R.R.P price drop will likely grate with customers. Worse still, the Sonos Play:3 is even older, having launched in 2011.
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Still, it’s not as if Sonos is alone in passing the cost of fluctuating currencies onto consumers. Prominent tech giants like Microsoft, Razer, and Dell have all increased their pricing in response to the slumping pound. And Apple, after having increased product pricing late last year, decided to increase app prices by 25% in January.
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What do you think of the Sonos price rises? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
