"In the past 8 years, many companies are involved in the war. These companies cannot be a rival. This is a bloody technology war, and finally, it has become the most cruel and cost-effective war in the past few decades. If Become a winner, you can have the most popular items, enter the family of countless people. Everything starts from the speaker, and the speaker is 100 years ago.
Why do this happen? Because consumer behavior has changed. Until recently, there are only a few products and services in the family, such as telecommunications company offers monthly payment services.
A few years ago, the modern technology company found that even if the payment service is not provided, it can easily convince consumers and penetrate thousands of households. The voice control speakers developed by Amazon, Apple, and Google are tightly tight, because consumers are confused about technology equipment, these devices have too many app, interface, buttons, and control. The first batch of equipment has been commercially achieved.
For consumers, is this kind of hindrance? Now you can't conclusion, but it is very clear: it can help the technology company to earn more money. Although SONOS is an entrepreneur company, it is also promoting smart speaker technology, and now the company is ready to list, financing $ 100 million.
Although we have seen many analytical reports, he heard many market rumors, the reporters also reviewed the Sonos S-1 files, but I was not too, if I want to know the future of a company, I will drill into its products. Look for the truth. Under the apparent product hidden, it can tell us how this war will continue.
Disassembly: Sonos One
Sonos One is a flagship Alexa speaker. Sonos is quite famous in the speaker market. It has been founded for 15 years, and it wanted to help with you to create a new high with Sonos One. Sonos One's recommended retail price is $ 199, $ 50 than Echo Plus. Some people may think that SONOS One is expensive, mainly because of a higher installation cost, or better sound quality, but I don't think so: I believe this is a signal, tell us a company in impossible Struggling in the war.
Open the bottom cover, we will see the speaker company's mark: retail serial number, ubiquitous code. Black white version has different numbers, and the date is September 2017, the PC represents the polymer is 100% polycarbonate, which means cost higher. It can be seen that the supply chain of Sonos is quite long.
Continue to deepen, you can see the tradition, manufacturing process. For example, the speaker grille is a flat iron piece, which is rolled into a circular square, welding and suture are very strict, and the black paint is applied. Although the component looks good, there is no innovation where it is.
After all speaker components are all open, the complex internal structure can be seen. In fact, the speakers have two parts, they are bonded together, sewing strict. This design we habred called "block and chisel", meaning that it is a big piece, then cut off plastics, let component match. You have no way to use the mold directly to create the entire component.
Why choose this process? It may be because it can enhance the sound quality, while reducing costs, making high-end speaker boxes. The polymer is ABS plus 10% glass fiber, which is used relatively small for conventional consumer electronic components, but it can actually enhance the sound quality. If glass fibers are used, design tools have higher cost, larger difficulty, and the surface process will be different, but mechanical properties are better.
Next, look at the main board, we can find more evidence to prove that SONOS is exploring new technologies. Power components and communication, MCU, and audio output components are printed on the same board. Most of the products I have studied are independent, installed on the standalone board. All Sonos may be designed such that the number of boards can be reduced by placing together.
You may have discovered that all communication components are all on a separate PCIe module, which is SONOS own, design around Atheros AR9580-AR1a. Put the communication component on a separate module, this technology is quite common, because large companies want to unify audio components in many products, simplify the FCC certification process. It can also be seen from here that SONOS has many products.
Look at the top of the product: the rear panel. It is made of die-cast zers, which can help the spendle heat. Look at the main processing component (blue arrow) on the board and the matching die-cast zinc assembly surface (red arrow). As can be seen from the design, the microprocessor generates a lot of heat.
The microprocessor we see is as follows:
- Freescale NXP SOM SC667517EYM10AE
- Phypress NAND FLASH 8GB S34ML08G101TFI000
- Magic DDR3 memory 4GB (2X) MT41K256M16TW-107-P
If you are familiar with consumer electronics, you will know that these speaker components are quite precise and the price is not low. The smart speaker installation This component can be understood because it requires a large amount of data in the device to quickly process the audio signal.
Look at the speaker, we can find the microphone array, audio processing circuit, all buttons, UI LED lights. This board looks like a different team (or individual) design, or it may be outsourcing, because design is different from the power supply, the communication board is different. There are 6 microphones, MEMS microphones, with 2 Germany PCM1864 four front end ADCs. The digital audio signal enters the power supply and the processor board through the cable, and is finally connected to Alexa.
Let us take a look at Amazon's work.
Disassembly: Amazon Echo Plus
Amazon took the lead in making smart speakers. When it has just entered the smart speaker market, it has achieved great success. Although the Echo revenue only accounts for a small part of Amazon's total, it means that Amazon has created a new product class, built a new business model, and Amazon did not want to rely on sales consumer electronic hardware to make money.
The design of the Amazon speaker is not the same as the traditional speaker. The entire product looks like a tubular plastic sandwich, all components are vertically connected, the middle is a shaft, the engineer is called "stack". This method is often used when designing the speaker.
Remove the stacked first layer plastic assembly, you will see the audio, the Bluetooth motherboard. The bottom of the motherboard is a digital circuit, responsible for generating, processing audio signals, top is an amplifier, power input connector, audio output connector, EFR32MG12 Bluetooth chip (EFR32MG12P232F1024GM48, is said to be fast 2 times). EFR32MG12 has a component being prepared for the ZigBee home network protocol, and the ZigBee protocol is one of the most potential agreements in the future low-energy, the Internet of Things home network standards. From this we can see that Amazon hopes that Echo can become the entrance to the home, not just as simple as the speaker.
Next, look at the second layer of the stacked assembly, here there is a high-frequency speaker, play the treble. The high-frequency speaker, the mid-sound driver is pronounced, in the consumer electronic speaker, this design is rare, and if it is a columnar product, it will generally be arranged. There is a reflective body at the bottom of the speaker, there are several points worth talking about:
- This component is very simple, but Echo Plus is quite complicated. There are many bumps, incisions, strange geometry, rarely see it in general consumer electronic components.
- There is no slope of the outer surface (meaning the plastic wall without any angle). In general, if it is an injection molding, there will be a plum shape (in order to facilitate the mold on the surface of the two sides of the mold),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The outer surface is made of extrusion or mechanical processes. This choice is not common, it is very beautiful, but costs will be higher.
- The cost of cone reflectors and outer surface assemblies is higher, and the light will be cheap from the outside, and it is actually 3-5 times more expensive.
The speaker grid is disassembled, it will find a secret: this is an extruded plastic tube, manufactured by static rotating drilling process. I have been removed for many years, or I first saw that some people used this process to produce such a large component. Calculate the production time, I guess Amazon's drill with a multi-headed diamond, and the rotating shaft drills these holes. If you use CNC to drill every hole, it is too much. It's hard to imagine, this is a very expensive component.
Let's take a look at the next stack, which is the high-frequency speaker box. There is not much to watch something, just think it is complicated. A professor of a mechanical engineering has said such a sentence: "Plastic is free." Therefore, adding a plastic assembly almost no cost, just looks strange.
After removing these stacks, we can see how much thought of Amazon, far more than we think. Honestly, this main structure (equipped with a main circuit board, there is an intermediate frequency drive) too complicated. Look at the cutting scale (blue arrows and point lines), we will know that this component is vertically drawn from the injection mold, which is highly manufactured with this process, and it will be monitored.
Why is Amazon to do this? Beyond my understanding. Amazon puts the intermediate frequency drive (which is more heavy) on the high-frequency speaker, which is not common. In general, the most important magnet will be placed as close as possible to the bottom, so that the product is more stable.
The main circuit board is placed in the center of the product, and the IV component (the first generation of ECHO is a German component). There are also some important chips:
- Liaotai MT8163V, it is the main microcomputer / processor, and the components seen on the PC are similar. This processor frequency reaches 1.5GHz, with 4 kernels, built-in graphic display chips, DDR3 memory, support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, camera features, GPS, FM radio features, and other features. Interestingly, this chip system is the same as 6 Amazon Fire HD.
- UNACD MT6323LGA Power Management Chip.
- Phypress / Boy Tong CYW43569PKFFBG 5G WiFi Bluetooth chip.
--SK 海 力 H9TQ64A8GTAC DDR3 flash memory.
Finally, the last layer was at the top of the product. There is a volume control key, two buttons, microphone array / user interface PCB. The volume control method is very creative, and the button is surrounded by continuous rotation potentiometers, quite elegant. Not complicated, not expensive, but the design is quite well.
Demolition user interface components, you can see how many components are made up of the custom volume control system. Amazon is willing to spend money to develop interesting, different things. There are 8 documented components above, which make up the volume knob. Unlike Sonos One, SONOS products have only one component, install the capacitive sensor.
Look at the microphone PCB, we will find that there are 7 microphones above, one more than Sonos One, one out of the circuit board is central, may be targeted, there are 12 LED lights, which will display alexa sound The volume and direction. I really like the LED light of the echo product, but there is a little confused: Why is the LED light not evenly?
Innovation Technology Giants VS Speaker Company
Although the purpose of the two products is almost the same, it is very different. After dismantling, it will find that Sonos pursues intelligence, it must do this because it is necessary to compete with other companies. As a small speaker price, Amazon's cost is greater. At least be more relied to SONOS One.
Why? Amazon is both OEM and retailer (not for profit at sales), this is a reason, and it is Amazon's long-term consideration, it wants to rule the newly-motion speaker market. If you don't study each custom component and the components, it is necessary to estimate that the BOM cost is a very difficult thing, take me, although Amazon Echo Plus price is 25%, but it is much higher than Sonos One. 15-20%. Amazon has three unfair advantages:
Advantage 1: Retailer and OEM
Amazon Sales Echo mainly rely on retail channels, in other words, it doesn't have to pay for other retail. Which company can sell millions of products alone? I am afraid there is only Amazon. From the actual perspective, when selling products, the retailer will take 35-50% of money, and Amazon can develop better products with these money.
On the other hand, SONOS must pay for retail. It is for this reason that Amazon products have a higher manufacturing cost, but the price is low. The speaker is a mass product. The price is the main consideration factor of consumers. You have no good way to resist the Amazon strategy.
Advantage 2: Control Platform
Although the Alexa of the Sonos speaker is basically the same, it is controlled by Amazon. Real IP and value are not metal, plastic, in software, data, systems, all of Amazon.
We have seen this strategy to get together, participate in the 2018 CES exhibition, will hear everyone talking about Alexa. Amazon Alexa platform is built, in front of Amazon, the platform's nodes (such as Sonos) are always small.
Advantage 3: Differentiation
The Sonos spell is all of Sonos, and its income is from entity products. Such business is actually difficult, in a plurality of product cycle cycles, only a few companies reach a large scale ($ 1 billion in revenue). Amazon is not the same, in order to engage in the secondary industry, it can lose billions of dollars casually, such as AWS, retail, prime. Amazon's business model is more diverse, so companies such as Sonos are difficult to compete with Amazon, as this game is not zero and game.
Sign or watch the decautions SONOS
You may have already noticed that I am not particularly optimistic about the future of Sonos. If the new star Sonos wants to launch the next generation of consumer speakers, they should consider a problem: start from scratch, build their own audio products with systematic methods, and control the platform as much as possible. Unfortunately, the products they sell tell a completely different stories: in order to keep up with competitors, a traditional speaker manufacturer has added a little technology, and is also incremental technology. In the long run, such a strategy is unable to win.
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