Has the sound wear companion speaker been discontinued?

[pk_ingeneral]

It is out of stock in most of the stores. A thread from May 2020 says that it has not yet been discontinued. But, is it still true in Dec 2020? See the screenshot below. Had Bose still been manufacturing these, it should have said “2017 - Present”, just the way it shows for other products. Should I still buy it from the stores where it is still available, or is a new version coming soon in early 2021?

[Vicky_W]

Hey there, 

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the forums. 

I would love to help, The Bose SoundWear Companion is still for sale on many of our online websites, this is why this is displayed. Can I please ask which region you are in?

[pk_ingeneral]

Hi Vicky, I am in the US. Other than Amazon, which other major website is it really available on? Also, I accidentally marked your previous answer as the solution. 

[Vicky_W]

Thanks for confirming, it does only seem to be available on Amazon in the US, but in other regions, it is still available. I can see we were selling some refurbished ones direct on our website, but they seem to be out of stock. Keep an eye on our website as stock is always updated depending on what we have available. 

[pk_ingeneral]

That's why it begs the question. Is Bose not manufacturing any new units? Are you just trying to get rid of the units that are not yet sold? See below the screenshot for Rondo frames. It says "2018 - present". However, for the soundwear, it says "2017 - 2020"? Can you please explain this Vicky? Are you scared that if you openly and clearly say that this product has been discontinued, then people will stop buying the unsold units?

[Hao Wong]

I am also wondering the same question, whether I will be able to buy a Bose soundwear in the near future. I'm in Canada and none of the local stores or Amazon carry it on their website.

Also, would be nice to know if perhaps is there a second version coming soon?

[juanteal]

I hope there is a Version 2 coming someday. I love my current Soundwear device but I'd probably buy V2 as well.

I think the fabric case and charging port situation would be easy to improve, but I'd also hope for some even greater audio wizardry that makes it sound better to me and quieter to everyone else in the room.   

I definitely don't want integrated Alexa but that is probably inevitable. 

[Leodis]

I managed to get one a few months ago from a UK online retailer. When it arrived the manufacturing date was quite old, but they are keepers. With so many people shifting to working from home they are brilliant. 

At home you don’t need noise cancelling and sound leakage isn’t an issue. I’d love to see a v2 with Microsoft Teams compatibility, possibly by using the Bluetooth dongle from the 700s if needed  - great for all day comfort and the natural sound you get from having the speaker on your shoulder is something I can’t replicate with other headphones.