Here is also a good article that describes the choice Sonos made and where Sonos is going.
[Link: macobserver.com]Seems Sonos decided to go the route of making the Sonos an extension of Alexa vs. a service. As a service Sonos could have released a full feature set to control all aspects of Sonos today. Curious to know if Sonos could have done both and give people an option but I guess that would have been confusing. I think their decision is a mistake and will lead to consumer frustration. All to avoid having to use the command "Tell Sonos" after "Alexa".
Maybe Sonos is thinking more people will probably use the app to start and elect music and then just use Alexa to control volume, pause or resume. play next track, etc. Especially for existing Sonos Households. That is really all its good for in its current state if you usual music sources aren't one of the few that are avail within Alexa. For a company that has the widest range of music choices avail it seems like a silly decision on its face. I guess the flip side is they had no choice to stem the bleed for those who are buying Alexa over Sonos. The New Play1 is that answer and a much better choice over buying an Alexa. Also, it gives the ability to easily switch platforms to Google or Apple , or maybe use multiple platforms, in the future without having to throw away hardware.