The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

Overkill

Is this true? All issues go away if you just disable 5ghz in the router? That seems weird, but doable. Has Sonos posted any information saying that this is the fix to all issues? Sounds like if would be a good idea to make people aware of this. If it’s truly the only issue.

Work in software so have some sympathy but this release is ridiculous. How the **** could you release it without “Create and edit local music library: July” to name just one. Is someone actually wanting to destroy the company!

Not your biggest customer but will have to think really hard before buying any more speakers. Lots trust!

Disabling 5ghz wifi is all great until your other devices that rely on 5ghz stop working… This is no solution. Nor should it be. 

Stock is starting to register customer unhappiness…

The large spike up in Feb ‘24 was due to exceeding YE 23 EPS estimates.  Imagine what will happen to the stock if they miss EPS and/or Revenue guidance for Q2 ‘24? That would be late July or August.

It’s starting to get ugly, thanks god I only own speakers….

Stock is starting to register customer unhappiness…

The large spike up in Feb ‘24 was due to exceeding YE 23 EPS estimates.  Imagine what will happen to the stock if they miss EPS and/or Revenue guidance for Q2 ‘24? That would be late July or August.

It’s starting to get ugly, thanks god I only own speakers….

Thank you for showing a wider view than just the last 5 days, which most people like to post as definitive sign of doom and gloom.  However, the graph shows that’s down 7% from the first of the year, with a spike in the middle due to exceeding expecations.  A look at 1Y shows that it’s down 3% from this time last year.  It’s not good news, but I wouldn’t say it’s really gotten ugly just yet.  The stock has spent a lot of time lower than 15 in it’s past.

@amblue02

It really depends how you cut it and whether you are subjective or objective. That chart is really not representative. 

Below is the chart for the last five years. The highs of Covid, when everyone was indoors, buying audio equipment and streaming subscriptions, could never be sustained. The world came out of Covid mid/late 2022, and Sonos’ share position has not moved a great deal since then, other than the usual ebbs and flows. 

The last month’s ‘decline’ is barely perceptible. 

If you want to compare like-for-like, the same period (early May to mid June) in 2021 saw a share drop of US$2.25; same period in 2022 saw a drop of US$0.74; in 2023, it was a drop of US$5.40!. So a drop of just US$0.96 since the launch of the new app is absolutely nothing, and could easily be put down to market conditions rather than customer disgruntlement. Don’t forget, the financial press has not reported on this - investors are too long-in-the-tooth to be swayed by an angry post on a Sonos forum, or a YouTube video by Peter Pee.  

It looks exciting to micro-analyse the last month, but step back and look at it from a distance and Sonos is not in trouble. All the ire and frustration vented on the forum is with merit, but time is a great healer and when the app works as it should, suddenly the Sonos share price will be of no interest to anyone on here…

Sonos stock PPS may not yet reflect it, but this ‘new and improved Sonos controller’ fiasco has put a damper on demand for Sonos products and the company’s growth potential. Current owners of Sonos systems have lost confidence and will not be buying Sonos products from this point on. Potential new buyers will hear horror stories through the grapevine and look to alternatives… and there are many such alternatives now… rather than invest in a system that management has cavalierly tinkered with and rendered nearly useless for a significant portion of its current customer base.

I’ve already seen this up close. My spouse does design work for new and remodel residential construction. More than one client who wants multi-room sound as part of the project has flat rejected her suggestion to enter the Sonos universe; and she won’t be making that suggestion again now that we’ve had this experience in our own home. Au contraire, she will tell clients to steer clear. Don’t think she will be the Lone Ranger in that regard.

Sonos has demonstrated that it cares not one bit about its users. It’s not entirely clear what the business model is at this point. They’re flailing around experimenting with an app that all Sonos owners rely on to make their hardware function; and they seemingly don’t give a damn that they’ve disabled systems some current owners have spent thousands to purchase and wiped out music libraries that took Sonos users hundreds of hours to assemble. They either can’t restore that functionality, or arrogantly decline to do so because they’re ‘moving forward,’ whatever that means.

Now try to reach Sonos support. It’s not there. The chat option is currently ‘unavailable.’ And why spend hours waiting to make contact by phone… they can’t help you anyway. Look at the original post listing all the wonderful new features that will be added in coming months… you won’t see ‘Sonos playlists’ or music libraries on local storage devices. Gone today, not a Sonos priority, possibly never returning.

I for one will never buy another Sonos product. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me again? That’d be my own damn fault.

It's definitely not true. My setup is on a 2.4 network and the speakers and the old app work fine, but the new app has a lot of reliability and connection issues.

It could fix SOME reliability issues, because some devices do switch between 2.4 and 5 GHz when there's a mesh. But I imagine that has more to do with your phone/tablet than with your speakers.

Anyone that claims this would fix "all" problems, really doesn't understand IT. In fact, it could introduce a lot of reliability issues depending on the devices nearby. 2.4 GHz signals are more likely to suffer from distortion by other electronic equipment.

@amblue02

It really depends how you cut it and whether you are subjective or objective. That chart is really not representative. 

Below is the chart for the last five years. The highs of Covid, when everyone was indoors, buying audio equipment and streaming subscriptions, could never be sustained. The world came out of Covid mid/late 2022, and Sonos’ share position has not moved a great deal since then, other than the usual ebbs and flows. 

The last month’s ‘decline’ is barely perceptible. 

If you want to compare like-for-like, the same period (early May to mid June) in 2021 saw a share drop of US$2.25; same period in 2022 saw a drop of US$0.74; in 2023, it was a drop of US$5.40!. So a drop of just US$0.96 since the launch of the new app is absolutely nothing, and could easily be put down to market conditions rather than customer disgruntlement. Don’t forget, the financial press has not reported on this - investors are too long-in-the-tooth to be swayed by an angry post on a Sonos forum, or a YouTube video by Peter Pee.  

It looks exciting to micro-analyse the last month, but step back and look at it from a distance and Sonos is not in trouble. All the ire and frustration vented on the forum is with merit, but time is a great healer and when the app works as it should, suddenly the Sonos share price will be of no interest to anyone on here…

 

 

Rhonny -

Of course for a long-term investor total return over the holding period is what matters. My point was Sonos had built momentum coming out of strong Q4 23, sustained the growth through Q1 24, but has started to lag and suffer due to the “awful” experience surrounding the most recent software upgrade. 

Your points are tailored towards a longer term view of Sonos, which I understand and to a degree agree with.  The embedded base of users have simply spent too much $ and get too much utility out of the product to walk away.  The speakers sound great, serve dual purpose in rooms with TV’s (soundbar / music source), and once these issues are fixed memories are short.

However, the stock is down closer to $2.50 pre-upgrade ($18 → $15.50), and by reading these forums and reviews of the Ace, it does seem like Senior management was pressing for the Ace to save Q2 24.  I don’t follow this stock, I am just a disappointed long term user of what is for the most part a fantastic music service.  I was happy to find my short term workaround with the Music Library issues on the Mac and do hope that a permanent fix is on the way.  My point is that the stock is down $2.50 / $18 = ~ -14%, which is not immaterial. 

Upsetting the core customers is not a path to success for most companies.  Speaking only for myself, I held off on purchasing the Ace when I learned that there would be no WiFi connectivity to my Sonos system.  Being able to listen to lossless music streamed to my headphones would have been worth it.  Buying a replacement to my perfectly functional Airpods Max doesn’t make sense for blue tooth connectivity alone.

Bottom line (IMHO) is the Ace release is half-baked (should’ve waited till they had WiFi connectivity for lossless music), the software update was half-baked, which I interpret as actions of a senior management hoping that excitement for the Ace will take them over the Q2 24 guidance.  I of course may be wrong, but these are my thoughts.