S1 vs. S2 app - legacy equipment - upgrade costs (COMPLAINT)

This has been covered here 

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/end-of-software-support-clarifications-6835969/index70.html

"Just once again" by a person on their very first post?  Is this an admission of sockpuppetry? 

And free replacements?  Just how long do you think Sonos stays in business giving away free devices?   With a policy like that, it won't be long before everyone's system is "legacy", and that kind of thinking sucks from both a business and a consumer point of view.

And my old Marantz receiver stopped getting updates two years after I bought it. In this respect I can’t really fault Sonos - though I have to admit that I do not own any Legacy devices.

I can’t run the current version of iOS on my original iPhone. Does Apple owe me a new phone?

Just wanted to say thank you for everyone’s vote of confidence…  I’m sorry that this has been covered before - it should have been and should continue to be until Sonos pulls their head out of whatever hole it’s in.  In this day & time, with global technology and the speed to market of new products, they have to be cognizant of alienating customers like me.  I have spent my entire career in CGP (consumer packaged goods) and know first hand what happens with you cause too large of a ripple to consumers.

As far as jgatie - sorry my friend, but everyone has to have a first post correct?  Most forums the complaint is against first posts in the For Sale section.  I’m not sure what you would have preferred for my first post to be, but this is what I have chosen.  I want Sonos to understand that their customers are still not happy with their newest solution to their legacy products.  And, BTW, my “just once again” comment was because I have privately had 3-4 separate conversations with Sonos.  So yes, this is “once again” from my perspective.

What ever happened to that old saying, if you don’t have anything nice to say, then just don’t say anything at all.  Is it necessary to jump into this thread and post negative / non-supportive comments?  If you don’t like the subject line or content, just leave it alone and it will die on it’s own correct?  No responses the thread will allow it to continue sliding down the list of threads until it eventually disappears.

I’m frustrated with Sonos and don’t agree with their current business strategy.  I want to be able to voice my opinion.  I’m not looking for anyone to support it, just for Sonos to read it (again).

There is nothing wrong with statement regarding a company needing to understand what your customers want, but why do you think you understand this better than Sonos does?  Although it doesn’t say anything definitive either way, Sonos has reported to have doubled it’s market share from 2019 to 2020. 

https://voicebot.ai/2020/04/28/amazon-smart-speaker-market-share-falls-to-53-in-2019-with-google-the-biggest-beneficiary-rising-to-31-sonos-also-moves-up/

‘Once again’ applies you’ve had this discussion before with the same people.  I get that you talked to Sonos before, but you were not just talking to Sonos now.  It actually hinted at the possiblity that you were passing using multiple accounts in the forum, and didn’t realize this was the first time you used this particular persona.

I’m not sure how you can say this in the same post where you claim Sonos has their head in some hole.  Was that a nice thing to say? 

This is true, but were your response really that negative and non-supportive?  You got a link to where you can get more information.  You also comments about how your idea of giving away free gear to legacy owners wasn’t something other companies did, and could possibly put Sonos out of business where no one wins and gets supported speakers.  Not exactly positive, but certainly useful commentary.

And yes you got a comment about the possibly that your post wasn’t as genuine. Not positive, but again this is all in response to your post that is hard to classify as positive itself.

Like any other forum, people are free to respond with their own opinions about your opinions.  If you only wanted Sonos to read it, then posting it in public wasn’t the best place to do it.

^ What Danny said.

Okay.  Appreciate your thoughts.  My initial post is out of frustration - nothing more or less.  It is genuine, I don’t use multiple user names or identities. 

I’m frustrated with Sonos and felt the need to express it publicly - figured a forum supported by Sonos would be the appropriate venue.

Frustration is understandable.  I also have a legacy Connect:amp but it powers speakers in the garage so i don’t need it to play in sync with everything else so much.  I have not decided if I’m going to leave it as S1 and do a split system, upgrade to a Sonos Amp with the trade discount, or perhaps get a pair of Sonos Ones in the garage instead.

There is nothing wrong with you expressing an opinion, and the fact that some of us disagree with that opinion should not particularly bother you. This is absolutely the right place to express your views but it doesn't give you the right to express them unchallenged.

Here is my objection to what you said.  You said that you would be left with an 'outdated' system. Actually that is a system that will still do what it did when you were happy to buy it, plus all the free enhancements there have been since. 

However, if you want to benefit from future developments that one of your devices is not capable of delivering, then yes you will have to spend a bit of money to get something better than you have.

This is a route Sonos had to go down. You can quibble if you like over the size of discount, but tbh, I don't think otherwise you have a leg to stand on.

Feel free to disagree. 

Whilst I appreciate your frustration OP, as surely nobody in the world enjoys spending money and seeing their cash pile go down, I can't help but break down your illogical argument here.

Unlike cell phones or computers, people don't invest in larg sums of money in speakers and components with the idea that at one point in the near future they will be obsolete.

A Sonos speaker is both a computer and a speaker. Unlike dumb, passive, speakers which have been around for decades, Sonos is a wireless streaming speaker. You knew this when you bought it. In fact, the product you speak of, the Connect:Amp, is literally a computer. It’s not even a speaker.

As with every computer in the world ever, they eventually become obsolete because their internal hardware cannot keep up with the advances in software. Older Sonos products have far less RAM than newer ones, meaning they cannot support all the new features that Sonos provides.

In the same way that it would be unreasonable for you to demand a new smartphone from Google for free every 5 years just because you bought one in the past, it’s unreasonable for you to ask Sonos to manufacture a new product and ship it to you, gratis.

I’ll re-iterate what I said earlier in case you don’t understand it: You bought a computer. Computers become obsolete. Everyone on the planet knows this.

John B - the issue that I had with the responses was that I wasn’t asking for anyone else’s support or disagreement.  Clearly the note was directed squarely at Sonos.  Typically, unless someone is completely wrong or aggressive, most forum(s) etiquette is to assume good intent and not jump straight in to tell someone how wrong they are.  Honestly though, you did not do that.  Your post was completely acceptable IMO - you simply pointed out another similar thread (which I did read through) and I appreciate it.  I do think that the size of the discount on their higher end items like the Amp is entirely too small considering the price I paid for the first one.  And finally, I do consider my legacy items as being outdated or obsoleted by Sonos - they are going to have 2 apps available.  If they were still truly usable, IMO, everything would continue to be operated though one singular app.  Each to their own opinion though.  Thank you for the response - Corey

Sheza - I think you and I should probably agree to disagree.  I don’t feel that I bought something similar to a smart phone which gets dropped and damaged.  Also, because of the size of phones, the technology included is always a compromise from day 1.  I don’t feel that I purchased a computer either - if I did, there are options to continually change/modify/upgrade to keep them running (and keeping up) for years.  I purchased expensive sounds system components and expected them to last. 

Honestly group - this thread has grown and continued on much longer than I originally planned.  I didn’t start it with the intention of arguing or debating with other forum members.  I fundamentally don’t agree with Sonos right now and wanted to share it.  I’m realistic and know that they are not going to change the world for me, but if enough people feel roughly the same, we can eventually drive change.  Having said that, I’m going to sign off and no longer participate in this thread.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, including me, and I don’t want folks trying to prove me wrong/convince me I’m wrong while at the same time, I don’t want to convince anyone to the counter.  I have some many other priorities in life right now, that if all my Sonos items caught fire tomorrow, life would go on.  I don’t agree with Sonos - full stop.  But, I am going to focus my energy on other more positive things in my life right now.

Take care - hope everyone is safe, healthy, and happy.

If you don’t want a public debate, I suggest you don’t post it on a public forum.  Sonos’ direct email is:

https://support.sonos.com/s/contactsupport?language=en_US

Personally, I have to agree with KansasCorey. Sonos needs to stop with the constant updates to make us run out and buy a new Sonos speaker, or device, every 12 months.

And jgatie, talking about being a sockpuppetry. How much is Sonos paying you to kiss up to their tactics? A policy of not requiring us Sonos speaker owners to run out and buy a new Sonos product on every update that Sonos decides to do is NOT ludicrous to their (or any) business and consumer point of view.

For instance, take these proven examples….

My previous Apple Power Mac I owned for 10 years and that lasted through “10” YES TEN! system updates before I needed to go out and buy any new Apple Mac. (Because the software update was not compatible with my system and finally required me to go buy a new system.) Apple doesn’t seem to be having any trouble with doing updates and not costing their customers more money in running out and buying a new product every time they decide to do a new update. (The last I looked they are a ONE TRILLION dollar company. That’s $1,000,000,000,000.) They provide you a quality product with one purchase and then provide you years of updates at no additional cost (for the system software update OR you needing to buy another new system. Just because they did one update since you just purchased their product.)

I owned my Technics stereo system that was a turntable, 100 disk CD Changer, dual cassette player and receiver, along with the Technics speakers too for 32 years. NEVER once did I have to run out and buy a new component for some new feature. Oh and that system, was still working and usable a year ago, when I sold it to someone else to enjoy for who knows how many more years. Technics seems to be able to survive all these years without forcing their customers into running out and buying a new Technics product every year.

So, don’t give this lame excuse that Sonos needs to do these updates with... requiring their customers to go out and buy a new product on every update. Because if Sonos really knew how to make products that sell and give them, and their customers, ROI then they wouldn’t have to be listening to customers like us about how mad and upset we are with their tactics of forcing us to keep feeding them another $300, $500 or $1,000 every year for another software update. 

Sí. Unlike your non-network compatible Technics stereo system, Sonos speakers are UNIX computers driven by firmware.

Am I missing something here? Surely the so-called “legacy” Sonos products still work? So there’s no need for anyone to go out and buy anything: they just continue to use whatever Sonos kit they’ve already bought - stuff they were happy to buy, with the feature set available at the time of purchase.

When I bought an Olympus camera (£1000!) in 2014 it was superseded just a few years later, and firmware updates ended a year or so after that. But, the camera still works, and I still use it. Sure, the latest version (it’s now on the 3rd generation - in less than 10 years) has  several new features I’d like to use. I have a choice whether to buy a new camera or miss out on the new features and continue with what I have, but there’s no-one forcing me to buy the new one. Surely it’s the same with the Sonos equipment?

@kevinpru .  As others have said, comparisons with traditional hifi equipment, which are not firmware-driven computers as Sonos speakers are, are meaningless.

And then there is the small matter of the fact that your Sonos system still functions fully without any upgrades.

So why have you written the things in your post?  Complete failure to understand, or deliberate attempt to provoke?  It has to be one or the other.