Copy/paste from above:

“Technical debt is when you build on old code and infrastructure, even though it's heading for obsolescence. According to Lee, Sonos did that for two decades. That meant that "the vast majority of work being performed for the new app was less about introducing new functionality than sorting out the existing mess."

I think this debt more than just in the case of the app; I think something similar is the case with how Sonos does multi room wireless, using tech that is now close to 20 years old, a long time in this domain. Which is why things like Echo and perhaps WiiM now do what Sonos does with the need for a lot less handholding or rebooting or reserving of IP addresses. And I also suspect that with the old tech it uses, Sonos is not able to make the most of the latest Home Wifi tech used for setting up the WiFi at home. Also probably why Sonos isn't going after Echo/WiiM for patent infringement.

Or more likely as previously said, because the judge gave them a dressing down and told them not to abuse the US legal/patent system when they lost the Google attempt.

The precedent has been set that would put attempts to go after other tech companies against them, not in their favour by closing the doors to make it easy to chase other companies who don’t roll over and do an out of court deal.

Technical debt is the share of every company in IT.

Accumulating technical debt is also the share of many companies, and that makes great projects for people working in IT (like me).

What is innovating with Sonos app-ocalypse is a new way of treating that question : while most companies must manage a long project where you double run both old legacy system and the new fancy system and you transition softly from one to another, Sonos choose to simply put existing system to trash and release the to-be fancy system that was at beta level of development.

What I understand from the techradar article is that Sonos real professionals yelled that this was not the good strategy (and I’m finally reassured that most people in Sonos think they are doing wrong). But apparently someone in the top management decided to crash test the big bang idea in real life.

That explains a lot. There are 2 remaining questions for me :

• why the CEO is still in charge ? For how long ?
• will they finally let customers who want it use the old app until the new one is ready ? Or will this last some more months ?

The answer to your second (or third? There’s multiple questions per bullet point) question has been answered for at least a month. No, Sonos will not release an ‘old/previous’ version of their app for use. 
 

Not sure which feature you’re waiting for, ‘this’ is pretty indeterminate. There was another release this week. 

Good post.  Sonos ceo says the old app isnt reliable or good enough (Im paraphrasing but you get the idea). He also has some headphones he would like to sell you and that releasing the new app took courage. 

Yes I also read this, and this is precisely the problem stated in the techradar write up and that everybody has been complaining about in this forum and all over the internet for 6 month : Sonos a released a beta app in replacement of a functioning app. I know they said they wont release the old app, but I still hope there is someone there that will at last listen to the customers. I am so wrong ?

Well this is mostly the extremely slow interface and the fact that I have not figured yet how to choose the songs that I will listen next.
Just tried the new release : bravo ! The interface is very much more fast and responsive.

But I still haven’t figured how to choose the song that I will listen to next to the current one. Only way is to launch a new playlist. Well I say the app is dumb, but maybe am I dump myself ? Is there a solution ? If someone knows, please explain how you do that .

To add a song tap the three dots

Then choose one of the options 

What strikes me as a bit strange about the article is this excerpt:

• It seems that the list of essential bugs didn't match what customers felt were essential, as acknowledged by Eddie Lazarus, lead counsel at Sonos who led an internal review of what happened: "Our list of essential bugs, obviously, was not comprehensive enough." 

Does he (Eddie) still have a job at Sonos or maybe he’s now a short-timer? Whistle Blower? Obviously I don’t know or have the slightest idea. However, it does make me wonder…Hmmmm . 

The article linked in the OP references reporting from this (soft paywalled) Bloomberg article which has context for the quote you pulled.  Spoiler Eddie is not a whistleblower. Really good non click bait article, but is brutal to Sonos management. 

Thanx @almazri ! I hardly use the application anymore and didn’t notice this feature appearing.

If you have also a way to reorder the queue, you’ve made my day !

In the queue tap and hold in the hamburger/3 line icon, drag it to move it. 
 

To add a song tap the three dots

Then choose one of the options 

 

 

 

But where is the option to add the song to a Sonos playlist?

Do you mean like this...(see attached)?

To add a song tap the three dots

Then choose one of the optio

 

 

 

But where is the option to add the song to a Sonos playlist?

It doesn’t exist in the new app