Swedish furniture brand IKEA enjoys both popularity and notoriety for its minimalist design, DIY assembly and, more recently, integration with IoT technologies. In contrast to manufacturers of smart home products, IKEA integrates internet-enabled functions in a tasteful and sometimes bizarre way. The latest attempt could be to sell you an IKEA Symfonisk picture frame, which isn’t actually a picture frame, but rather an Art Deco that happens to house an invisible Sonos speaker in the frame.
This Sonos Art Deco from the IKEA brand first appeared last April in teasers of a new collaboration between the furniture manufacturer and the manufacturer of intelligent loudspeakers. It’s not the first time the two have worked together, of course, but this Symfonisk picture frame could be their strangest yet. On the other hand, it also fits perfectly with IKEA’s drive to blend technology with the rest of your furniture.
The product page, which surprisingly hasn’t been removed at the time of this writing, doesn’t have a lot of visuals, ironic for what is supposed to be an artistic picture frame. Only a section of the frame and the area in the middle can be seen. So it doesn’t seem like a real picture frame to put your own pictures in.
The picture frame from Symfonisk, on the other hand, is actually a WLAN loudspeaker in a rather unusual shape. With the Sonos name on it, there is some guarantee of sound quality and, more importantly, wireless connection to audio sources. It’s not explicitly stated, but The Verge says AirPlay 2 is supported.
For $ 199.00, you could probably go for a better Sonos speaker or one with more features. However, these cannot disguise themselves as works of art and astonish your guests anyway.
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