SONOS legacy systems: How to ruin your good reputation through greed?
SONOS - very good and reliable product, so much so that I have quite a few units and have recommended it to friends. However, SONOS has over the past three years turned it from a fairly open system (by that I mean no restrictions or obstacles to use) to one entirely reliant on a SONOS account. You cannot add or change any of your units without that login. Their privacy terms permit extensive data harvesting, tracking what you listen to. All of that is valuable profiling information (your music choice can say a lot about you).
There was absolutely no need for this change - it was all about control over SONOS users, which once in place allows SONOS to force users to buy new SONOS units.
One of the reasons for buying an expensive device is reliability and performance. I have a SONOS amp which is probably 12+ years old and it works fine. It cost a lot and is well made. It can carry on working for years I'm sure.
Remember that all the SONOS needs to do (for me, that is) is play music stored locally or access a couple of mainstream music and radio services. That's it.
SONOS has just announced that it is no longer going to support some older but perfectly good working products. Instead you can upgrade to a new product (that means 3x£600 for me on the amps and I have 5 Play units that are also at risk) for a 30% discount on the new product. HOWEVER, the perfectly fine working unit that you "upgrade" from is then bricked by SONOS because it has access to your devices by virtue of your account.
In 2017 SONOS introduced a mandatory login account. Nothing about my use of SONOS has changed yet suddenly SONOS has control over my units, including forcing me to either upgrade at great expense or over the coming months lose the ability to use these working units. How? Well, your SONOS system won't work if one of the units is not on the latest firmware. You are forced to upgrade the firmware/software and at the same time that forces you to accept the latest terms of use - if you want a working system you are forced to agree to the new terms (with the new restrictions).
In May this new policy kicks in so by the end of the year I will have no choice but to either stop using perfectly functioning units and buy at least three replacements at great cost or never add a new SONOS unit (the firmware version number discrepancy will bork the system).
What would be acceptable of course is for SONOS to say it isn't going to upgrade very old units with new functionality but still allow the older units to work. No new firmware and you use it at your own risk, but quite frankly it just plays music so I don't see much of a risk there.
This is a cynical commercial ploy to force owners to upgrade equipment which is working perfectly fine. How does that square with waste and our environment - perfectly good equipment will go to a landfill for no reason whatsoever.
This has the hallmarks of a good honest company being taken over by greed - lock users in and force them to upgrade.
SONOS runs the risk that somoeone will take what is really a computer + amp and create new firmware for it, cutting SONOS out completely. That wouldn’t be my preference but if I have a choice between spending thousands of pounds replacing perfectly good equipment or breaking the tyrannical hold of a supplier over me then it would become attractive.