Trending Lyricist I

Question

It takes "courage" to admit a mistake and make right, why not offer up S2 Gold App back on App Store?

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Dear Sonos,

You have a New Coke, or more recent example CNN+, level of self-induced crisis with your recent App update killing your core value proposition - The Sonos Ecosystem.

This is beyond access/search to Personal Music Libraries or some systems not connecting, but by purposefully removing basic functionality like Queue, Sonos Playlists, Segmented Favorite, Search Personal Music, Mute, TV/Music Source Switch, Alarm, Sleep and others - you’ve demonstrated a lack of awareness on the importance of trust as the guardian of your company’s ecosystem.

Apple is a dominant example of a stable (and expanding) ecosystem driving consumer confidence to invest in new hardware as well as upgrade hardware for want, not need.

Mistakes happen, even by industry leading companies. It takes “courage” to admit them and do the right thing, not double-down and pat yourself on the back for a self-induced deadline (Q2 Earnings with CEO Update) to disrupt your ecosystem over the launch of a new product (headphones).

Like New Coke, keep the new App on the shelves, but time to bring back Gold S2 App (Classic Coke) on the App store today.

Don’t wait weeks/months to add updates to return your ecosystem to what it was last week. Trust erodes quickly and is hard to earn back, especially when you need future consumer spending on new hardware or upgraded hardware to survive.

It takes “courage” to admit a mistake and make things right. It demonstrates you can be trusted as guardian to a value proposition and deserve consumers money and time invested in your products.

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J

jakudo

Enthusiast I

Very nice written!

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Bumper

You offer good advice but afraid this will fall on deaf ears.

Sonos has doubled down on the dumpster fire release. Actually Saying it “Took Courage” to release this disaster.

Sonos says its controversial app redesign took ‘courage’

The company hears what customers are saying but insists the new app was necessary — even if it’s ‘a few steps back’ for now because of missing features.

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melvimbe

The assumption that Sonos can just roll back to the S2 app assumes that plans for future products and features would not be negatively impacted. I don’t think that’s the case. In fact I would suspect that the reasons the new app was pushed out before it was ready is because of it’s impacts on future product releases. The question then is whether the negative impact of this new app release and then pulling it back is worse then the negative impact to whatever Sonos has planned. From a consumer perspective, that question is probably pretty easy to answer. Perhaps not so much from Sonos perspective.

I do wonder if having two versions of the app is a solution going forward, but that clearly has some big downsides as well. Again, consumers are probably happy with that, but Sonos surely doesn’t want to support yet another app version, and one that doesn’t allow users to add whatever product Sonos is likely about to announce.

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Danny

G

GFB20ProductsAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

The assumption that Sonos can just roll back to the S2 app assumes that plans for future products and features would not be negatively impacted. I don’t think that’s the case. In fact I would suspect that the reasons the new app was pushed out before it was ready is because of it’s impacts on future product releases. The question then is whether the negative impact of this new app release and then pulling it back is worse then the negative impact to whatever Sonos has planned. From a consumer perspective, that question is probably pretty easy to answer. Perhaps not so much from Sonos perspective.

I do wonder if having two versions of the app is a solution going forward, but that clearly has some big downsides as well. Again, consumers are probably happy with that, but Sonos surely doesn’t want to support yet another app version, and one that doesn’t allow users to add whatever product Sonos is likely about to announce.

I disagree, as they have already demonstrated the ability to do it. They had SONOS 1 App up on the App Store for 4 years after they bricked those systems to not into integrating into S2 back in 2020. They don’t need to keep S2 App up for 4 years, they only need up for the weeks/months UNTIL they can clearly demonstrate same functionality in this updated App version.

Do you honestly believe an existing Sonos consumer is going go out and buy headphones next month or ever, with this situation ongoing? And if it is remains, new consumers will review SONOS before purchase and the reviews from May onward will drive away future investments.

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20 active SONOS products, 27 Hardware products bought since 2013, shareholder since 2018.

melvimbe

The assumption that Sonos can just roll back to the S2 app assumes that plans for future products and features would not be negatively impacted. I don’t think that’s the case. In fact I would suspect that the reasons the new app was pushed out before it was ready is because of it’s impacts on future product releases. The question then is whether the negative impact of this new app release and then pulling it back is worse then the negative impact to whatever Sonos has planned. From a consumer perspective, that question is probably pretty easy to answer. Perhaps not so much from Sonos perspective.

I do wonder if having two versions of the app is a solution going forward, but that clearly has some big downsides as well. Again, consumers are probably happy with that, but Sonos surely doesn’t want to support yet another app version, and one that doesn’t allow users to add whatever product Sonos is likely about to announce.

I disagree, as they have already demonstrated the ability to do it. They had SONOS 1 App up on the App Store for 4 years after they bricked those systems to not into integrating into S2 back in 2020. They don’t need to keep S2 App up for 4 years, they only need up for the weeks/months UNTIL they can clearly demonstrate same functionality in this updated App version.

Do you honestly believe an existing Sonos consumer is going go out and buy headphones next month or ever, with this situation ongoing? And if it is remains, new consumers will review SONOS before purchase and the reviews from May onward, are going to drive any future investment away.

If Sonos brings back the S2 app, then there will be diehards who will want to keep it around forever, even once all the issues are resolved. They will also have to figure out how they will handle setups where some controllers are the old version and some are the new. Can the old app even function if there are headphones in the system?

Yes, I do think consumers will still purchase the headphones with the app in the current state. It will obviously negatively impact sales, but not dry it up entirely. Many users don’t use local libraries, alarms and the other features that are missing. Then there are other consumers that don’t use the app for anything but setup, preferring to use voice control, airplay, or the music service app. Some consumers will want headphones for the bluetooth functionality only. Unless we hear that Sonos decides to delay the release of headphones, they clearly see it as better to release then delay. They have the marketing data that we don’t.

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Danny

S

Sewnoss

Enthusiast I

This is a footgun situation because I will NOT be buying the Roam 2 or Ace headphones BECAUSE of these issues. Not having the courage to undo this mess is going to be a false economy because right now I have zero trust to purchase any more Sonos products.

They will get more money out of me by fixing this calamity first and then trying to sell me more stuff.

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D

Docrockford

Lyricist I

Please bring back the ability to mix & blend playlists & songs together in one hybrid playlist. That is what I loved most about Sonos…that I could customize my own unique playlist. That was the beauty of the entire system!

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stein067

Enthusiast I

Completely agree!

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G

GFB20ProductsAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

The assumption that Sonos can just roll back to the S2 app assumes that plans for future products and features would not be negatively impacted. I don’t think that’s the case. In fact I would suspect that the reasons the new app was pushed out before it was ready is because of it’s impacts on future product releases. The question then is whether the negative impact of this new app release and then pulling it back is worse then the negative impact to whatever Sonos has planned. From a consumer perspective, that question is probably pretty easy to answer. Perhaps not so much from Sonos perspective.

I do wonder if having two versions of the app is a solution going forward, but that clearly has some big downsides as well. Again, consumers are probably happy with that, but Sonos surely doesn’t want to support yet another app version, and one that doesn’t allow users to add whatever product Sonos is likely about to announce.

I disagree, as they have already demonstrated the ability to do it. They had SONOS 1 App up on the App Store for 4 years after they bricked those systems to not into integrating into S2 back in 2020. They don’t need to keep S2 App up for 4 years, they only need up for the weeks/months UNTIL they can clearly demonstrate same functionality in this updated App version.

Do you honestly believe an existing Sonos consumer is going go out and buy headphones next month or ever, with this situation ongoing? And if it is remains, new consumers will review SONOS before purchase and the reviews from May onward, are going to drive any future investment away.

If Sonos brings back the S2 app, then there will be diehards who will want to keep it around forever, even once all the issues are resolved. They will also have to figure out how they will handle setups where some controllers are the old version and some are the new. Can the old app even function if there are headphones in the system?

Yes, I do think consumers will still purchase the headphones with the app in the current state. It will obviously negatively impact sales, but not dry it up entirely. Many users don’t use local libraries, alarms and the other features that are missing. Then there are other consumers that don’t use the app for anything but setup, preferring to use voice control, airplay, or the music service app. Some consumers will want headphones for the bluetooth functionality only. Unless we hear that Sonos decides to delay the release of headphones, they clearly see it as better to release then delay. They have the marketing data that we don’t.

With due respect, this is where you don’t understand the value prop of SONOS - it’s not hardware. There is better sound quality elsewhere among the value, mid and premium price categories. There is better amps, sleeker soundbars, and more capable smart speakers on the market. It is SONOS ability to bring all sources of music and sound (i.e TV) together in a centralized control that can be operated across vast amount of spaces (indoor and outdoor) without interruption and at different volume/EQ/source input.

The snobbery of many users don’t use local libraries, therefore it’s not important… is the equivalent that many people no longer ethernet connection, it’s all wireless therefore let’s have SONOS remove ethernet ports in it’s equipment to save money. You think it would still sell as much? If I couldn’t Cat 5 or 6 the AMPs and PORTs around the house or out to other yard locations (i.e. pool house), I would’t own them - because of interruption.

As for headphones - if you dismiss what I share at their value prop and not use the app, why is one then buying SONOS headphones over what someone already owns in AirPods, Beats, Bose, Sennheiser, etc.? These work perfectly fine on their Airplay already and are either better sounding, more sleek or economical that what SONOS will launch.

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20 active SONOS products, 27 Hardware products bought since 2013, shareholder since 2018.

S

sjw

Local Superstar

The App has been released with no update to any hardware so I highly doubt this specific release was to tie in with any new hardware.

Sonos gave a date and they've stuck to it and to hell with the consequences.

I've never known the likes of it.

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Sonos says its controversial app redesign took ‘courage’

The company hears what customers are saying but insists the new app was necessary — even if it’s ‘a few steps back’ for now because of missing features.

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