SONOS V6.4 update kills all iPod 4th generation controllers

Sonos could do it for sure but they would have to develop, maintain and support another yet controller in addition to the PC, Mac, Android and IOS - the 'IOS lite' !
Not forgetting their own controllers also (100 and 200) which also need to be kept limping along.
I'd sooner they devote their resources to something which affects more than a minority of people who happen to have old ipods from 6 years ago still running !

Don't you think that frank has a point though, if a German guy can do it from his bedroom, so could sonos. There needs to be money it for them, so sell it from the apple store. SONOS for iOS6 controllers only @£5 then everybody is happy.. well maybe not, "you want £5 to give me functionality I already have" etc.......
Guess they think there is no money in it, so let it die, move on.

How many development guys does sonos employ I wonder, seems like a cupboard with a dusty phone ;O))

Apple doesn't allow more than one app in the app store targeting different iOS versions. You either write one app without all the new bells and whistles that is backwards compatible, or you include the bells and whistles and orphan the old iOS versions. You can't do both.

Sonos could do it for sure but they would have to develop, maintain and support another yet controller in addition to the PC, Mac, Android and IOS - the 'IOS lite' !
Not forgetting their own controllers also (100 and 200) which also need to be kept limping along.
I'd sooner they devote their resources to something which affects more than a minority of people who happen to have old ipods from 6 years ago still running !

No they couldn't do it. Apple doesn't allow it. Apple makes money selling new iPhones, so allowing different versions of apps just to avoid orphaning older devices is not in their interest.

And before anyone says Apple does allow it, they allow you to offer older release versions for older iOS hardware. They do not allow you to maintain and release two different versions. Given that changes on the Sonos hardware entail changes on the controller, keeping older versions of the controller that still work would be difficult, if not impossible. Even during beta, a single release difference in hardware vs. controller versions kills the majority of setup options.

Why should SONOS devote any resources to a light ios version? Well, first off, I'm not sure that there are any significant additional resources required. As long as they don't change any of their existing internal commands to their players, they could have simply frozen the existing ios controller App version and continued to make it available to ios 6 users. It would have continued to work, as is. They can always add new commands to their internal App/Player interface to increase functionality, but changing the existing basic command set is just plain dumb. (I spent a few decades designing, writing and maintaining s/w systems so the process isn't all that mysterious to me.) Freezing the App and letting users gradually migrate over as their old controllers die or the newer features become irresistibly attractive seems like the proper way to treat your user base.

SONOS has always been a premium system. They maintain almost Orwellian control over their retail network, making it very difficult to obtain their products for less than full list prices, which are high. We have ALL willingly paid this premium up front. We paid handsomely for the hardware but had an expectation that they would provide and maintain the controller apps required to make it work. So, why should SONOS do this? Because we've already paid for it!

To me, it is not reasonable that the functions supplied with a premium system should suddenly stop working, years after I've paid my money. (I bought a sound system, not an OS.) My three iPod Touch 4Gs cost about $200 each, plus the cost of the docks. They all still worked perfectly well before the upgrade. (They had much snappier response to commands and faster startup than the 3rd party uPNP based versions we are now being forced to use.) The iPod Touch 4G was discontinued in May 2013 so some of them out there are only 3 years old.

I've bought 14 SONOS devices over the years. They sound OK, but the main factor for me was their convenience and ability to perfectly sync the sound in different rooms. (If I want to hear really great sound, I still go to the basement and play my vinyl or non-mpged CDs.) But other companies are catching up. I was a big booster of SONOS and several friends now have their own systems. I'm not sure I'll be recommending them any more.

Feel free to agree or disagree but I continue to believe that SONOS s/w development has gone off the rails.

As stated above, even a single release out of date controller app loses most Settings menus, and in another thread a Sonos rep explained that it would not be too long before the older app didn't work at all. I personally have experienced this with older, out of date phones that I charged up and tried to kick off the app. It just hangs there not finding the system. Apple simply does not allow Sonos to keep modifying and releasing the older apps, they must remain on the app store as is. So, would you be willing to extend the life of your units a single release cycle at the cost of losing updating the index, tone controls, adding new units, TruePlay, etc., followed by one or two more release cycles after which it does not work at all? I doubt that would be satisfactory, because it would extend the life of your limited compatibility controller an additional 3-4, maximum 6-8 months.

Sonos have done this before to original ipad owners, it is like a kick in the nuts, if that is your only control device that you bought as a dedicated controller as Frank did.
If I had to go out & buy new controllers every3 years, I would sell the stuff.
I think there should be a sonos lite version, even if sonos has to create a new company/whatever to get around apples version limitations. After all their own original controllers still work.

Why do thrummed to do that when there are lite controllers already available.

Why do thrummed to do that when there are lite controllers already available.

Or maybe they have and we just don't know it. 😃

ah I see what you did there, me old bluff double bluff 😛