The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

As I noted about 40 pages earlier 1 week after the Sonos App was destroyed, the markets would be cruel to Sonos...and they have been.  Stock was below 12 this AM, down from ~18 before the “abortion” of an app was released.  And the company has yet to disappoint on Q2 24 earnings.  If they miss significantly, expect further declines.  Today Sonos’s market cap is ~$1.5B, down $750M...if I am the Board, I want the CEO’s head on a stick.  Never again screw your customers as badly as they have. 

I am not a software expert, seems that the app is still not working well.  Constantly freezes, hard to connect to playlists and library (thankfully i was able to connect with the NAS workaround), slow to find radio stations, no artwork, bleh.  How do SonoPhone (and LYD for Apple Watch) still connect so well, and yet Sonos can?  Open API’s ;-) ?

Management (and the Board of Directors) deserve the 33% destruction of shareholder value.  If you sell Coke, don’t change the batch to a new recipe not well tested that everyone hates (oh right, that happened). 

And btw, all the fixes promised in May have been late, including the Music Library fix which is now August (probably never)...

Any time your stock chart looks like a downhill ski course, it is a bad thing...

Unlike others, I take no pleasure whatsoever in any financial decline of Sonos. I want my speakers to be supported for years to come, which wouldn't be the case should Sonos fail. Nor would I want their thousands of employees to suffer from a misstep. (And that’s all it is: a misstep.)

So gloating about share price falls might be a thrill to some, and cause some to rub their hands with glee at the thought of Spence’s resignation. 

But the bottom line (no pun intended) is that Sonos [the company in which we have invested thousands] made an error. They knew immediately what a colossal mistake they’d made, and eventually issued a statement - all the while never letting up on issuing remedial app updates, which continue now [EDIT: INCLUDING TODAY] and into the next couple of months. 

I’m no Sonos apologist as this should never have happened, and on that we can all agree. But I just don’t see what is achieved by dancing gleefully around an injured stag with these incessant share price graphs - it’s not like Sonos haven’t noticed. And tomorrow they need to issue their latest quarter’s financial results and statement, with whatever that brings… 

But In a couple of months the app and most people’s systems will be up-and-running, and lives will continue, and all of this will be an unhappy memory (apart from those whose systems don’t work, but then there have ALWAYS been people with issues)...

TODAY’S APP UPDATE DETAILS: 

Current software version

80.06.04 (Android)
80.06.03 (iOS)

Release date: 8/6/2024

As I noted about 40 pages earlier 1 week after the Sonos App was destroyed, the markets would be cruel to Sonos...and they have been.  Stock was below 12 this AM, down from ~18 before the “abortion” of an app was released.  And the company has yet to disappoint on Q2 24 earnings.  If they miss significantly, expect further declines.  Today Sonos’s market cap is ~$1.5B, down $750M...if I am the Board, I want the CEO’s head on a stick.  Never again screw your customers as badly as they have. 

I am not a software expert, seems that the app is still not working well.  Constantly freezes, hard to connect to playlists and library (thankfully i was able to connect with the NAS workaround), slow to find radio stations, no artwork, bleh.  How do SonoPhone (and LYD for Apple Watch) still connect so well, and yet Sonos can?  Open API’s ;-) ?

Management (and the Board of Directors) deserve the 33% destruction of shareholder value.  If you sell Coke, don’t change the batch to a new recipe not well tested that everyone hates (oh right, that happened). 

And btw, all the fixes promised in May have been late, including the Music Library fix which is now August (probably never)...

Any time your stock chart looks like a downhill ski course, it is a bad thing...

Have you looked at the whole stock market yesterday?

Investors had a bit of a panic with many trading platforms either collapsing or stopping trading.

Buffet had $15 billion wiped off Berkshire Hathaway  investments

Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq, FTSE 100, FTSE 250 all down between 2 - 3.2% The Nikkei 225 lost 12% 😨

Google down about 2.7 percent, Apple down 5.5 percent, Nvidia nearly 7 percent, Microsoft more than 3 percent, and Meta nearly 3 percent

It’s a mix of concern over global events, such as potential for war between Iran and Israel, Japanese Yen

US concerns including the current economy/potential recession, high interest rates about to be cut.

There was a global sell off, but don’t let facts get in the way.

Anyway, for those who missed it sandwiched between financial chit-chat, there is an app update today. Details above.

Still no evidence of TrueCinema for Ace. Unless I missed something?

If it’s not in the release notes then no. There will always be a ‘still no sign of x’ for someone - it’s your turn this week. But the Ace additions in the list of fixes this week isn’t too bad for a great many people...

I’m more on the technical side. I want Sonos to succeed. Until this terrible release I’ve always took pride in showing friends my seven zone Sonos solution. Since the release of the app I won’t recommend Sonos.  Many, many people have begged and pleaded for Sonos to revert to the 16 version just until the new app was truly ready. All these pleas fell on deaf ears.
As an experienced software developer and cofounder of a vertical application company I posted the following suggestions when the update failure became apparent. I think much pain on both side would have been averted had Sonos put the version 16 app back up until the new app was ready.

No doubt about that - crisis would have been averted. 

Was the release of the Ace worth it…? We might find out tomorrow when the results are announced. 

 Not to be to bold, but I think I can speak for the entire user base when I say “No, it was not worth it.”

Sonos used an update to release a completely new application that was no where near ready for prime time. They should be beyond embarrassed.

Sorry, but that’s how I feel. I would never have released it as a new app let alone an update.