End of Software Updates for Legacy Products

Think this is disgraceful. You invest hundreds of pounds, me to the tune of 3k. Then sonos tells you half your kit over hlaf will basically start to not support any upgrades and finally I'm guessing stop working all together.  Never mind.30% off how about a refund.

SONOS I'm disgusted

What happens if I buy a new computer or move to another country and need to set up my system again….will I not be able to get things working again?.

Please advise us on this issue Sonos

Sonos if you are reading this you have kicked your brand into touch amongst the customers that championed you for so many years. 
 

They say no publicity is bad publicity - wrong! 

Sonos you are a disgrace. This announcement is nothing more than Sonos trying to appease your new investors into believing you have a viable business 

SONOS YOU JUST DESTROYED all of your loyal customers.  Bye bye. Sell Sell SONOS stock hard  

live owned Sonos products since the first shipment into the uk in January 2005 and have continued to add to that system over the years whilst also promoting Sonson to friends an family.  Oh dear what have I done!
I even bought some Sonos Stock but thankfully saw the writing on the wall when they bricked my cr100s and I sold the stock  

Sonos is finished in its current form.  Investors are pointless if you have destroyed customer loyalty 

Bye bye Sonos it was great while it lasted. 
 

And just to add to my earlier comment...... 

What the hell were you thinking sending an email out titled:

'Your system needs attention' 

What planet do you people live on?

The only thing that needs attention is the head of the money grabbing accountant whose idea this was and the board member that signed it off.

Some of my 9 Play 1's are approaching 5 years old do I need to sell these second hand now before they become irrelevant?

I would strongly urge that such questions as Michael’s be addressed, specifically and completely, in a much-accelerated time-frame… Today, or this week, and very visibly.
Judging from the response in just several hours, it must be very clear to anyone and everyone that this has spiraled well out of control.

You’ll still be able to set your system up, and if you have any trouble, the support team will be happy to help you get it all working again.

In one announcement Sonos have sowed the seeds to their own bankruptcy. 
 

no one will trust Sonos again 

That is brilliant… really explains how awful this move is… I will never buy sonos again...

I’m looking at Bluesound. They’re expensive, but hopefully supported for longer (but who knows these days). I have 3 connect zones that have just been trashed, and 3 play5’s (two of them paired with a Sub). I’ll probably keep the Play1’s + sub (for as long as Sonos deigns to support them) but transition out for my higher-end receivers currently connected to Sonos connects. What a way to alienate your customers. Amazing. Haven’t seen this level of stupidity since Gerald Ratner destroyed his own brand in the UK.

I’m still wondering how I’ll transition the family and friends (all of whom invested in the Sonos ecosystem on my recommendation) off Sonos. They’re not going to want to invest in something as expensive again. Google Chromecast audio’s would have been great, but Google (disclosure - I work there) stupidly cancelled them.

  Agreed on this.  So that would be potentially 7-8 years of life, more/less  depending on when you bought your device? 

I don’t know that there is going to be end of support life annoucement every 5-10 years.based on this first annoucement.  Hard to predict how fast the market will develop.  I don’t think I really thought my Sonos devices would last as long as they have personally.  I considered them to be computer like, and less like an AV system, so I expected hardware failures, features becoming obsolete, and dropped support much sooner than it did.  Obviously, others didn’t look at it that way.  I’m not saying I’m happy with looking at replace my units, I’m not.  Just in perspective, I see it a little differently than most apparently.

  From what I’ve seen on this board before, a lot of customers don’t like solutions like this that require them to buy something new for what they see as maintaining what they already have.  I also don’t know feasible a bridge solution like this actually is.  I know part of the aging of the old units isn’t just firmware/hardware, but the WiFi radios themselves are older.

You can have a general idea based on when the devices were first sold and what features they currently support.  The playbar is rather old  in comparison to the playbase and beam.  It also doesn’t support airplay, which the other two do.  just my opinion, but I also think there will be a new version of the playbar in a year or so.

This is a fantastic question.

**edit - Ryan just answered it. Thank you, Ryan.

Sonos you are a disgrace. This announcement is nothing more than Sonos trying to appease your new investors into believing you have a viable business 

SONOS YOU JUST DESTROYED all of your loyal customers.  Bye bye. Sell Sell SONOS stock hard  

live owned Sonos products since the first shipment into the uk in January 2005 and have continued to add to that system over the years whilst also promoting Sonson to friends an family.  Oh dear what have I done!
I even bought some Sonos Stock but thankfully saw the writing on the wall when they bricked my cr100s and I sold the stock  

Sonos is finished in its current form.  Investors are pointless if you have destroyed customer loyalty 

Bye bye Sonos it was great while it lasted. 

Complain to the CEO: Patrick.Spence@sonos.com

This is absolutely unacceptable both on customer service, sustainability and environmental factors.

Absolutely outraged and clearly profits over ethics here.

Complain and/or take your business elsewhere.

This throw away mentality is not only hurting users who have invested in Sonos - it’s one of the main contributing issues that’s having a negative effect on the planet. Such a shame that perfectly functioning products now look likely to become unusable in the short term.

The problem with further investment in the system is that this will probably be a never ending cycle of throw away and replace - where does it end?

This is NOT what I signed up to when buying into the Sonos system.

Watch your sales diminish Sonos.

This announcement is criminal.

Dear Sonos, you’re an absolute disgrace.  I have held you up on a pedestal for over 10 years.  I have showered you with thousands of hard earned dollars.  I have recommended you to people in every opportunity that represented itself.  I have given you out as gifts for birthdays and holidays.

And now you do this? 

Dear Sonos, I will take that same fervor, that same passion and enthusiasm that I had for you, and flip it 180 degrees.  I will never purchase you again.  I will expend all my energy to tell friends to never buy you again or bother upgrading you. 

Dear Sonos, I did not know you had a shelf-life back in 2007 when our relationship first began.  You lied to me!  How could you?

Dear Sonos, you betrayed me and every person that purchased you.  You have cost all of us thousands, but you will lose millions in share price alone.  You’ll never see the days of your IPO valuation again, and you know it.

Good bye Sonos!

The frequent Sonos updates were always a pain in the ass, they never brought me anything I was interested in.  I hope stopping the support means also stopping the interuptions. You should however be ashamed that you try making your clients to dispose of still good working and very expensive hardware.

I will never buy Sonos again.

Stefaan

@Ryan S or if not feasible with a sophisticated software solution you develop a new cheaper hardware component that could offload one or more legacy units putting them into “slave mode” still utilizing all other features of the legacy components such as speaker/amplifier etc.   There is also an environmental issue here with loads of unnecessary electronical waste. 

What about this situation:

Keeping system in legacy mode.

Controller in iOS gets auto uppdated.

Wouldn’t that make the Controller unusable since it’s an outdated system or will there be a legacy Controller App?

Unfortunately I can’t search the thread, this is probably already adressed.

Again, I’ve got 6 ZP80s  + 2 Play 5s (version 1) dotted around a large Victorian house connected to existing home cinema Av receivers, portable hifi, bathroom ceiling speakers etc. No real need to upgrade because they all work fine if I want to play music around the house.

Even with the discount, upgrading (if you can call it that) to the Port would cost £280 a piece and the new Play 5s £350. How long before those are classed as legacy?

Access to music has changed in recent years as well as the type of music I want to listen to, many more devices now offer airplay 2, I can stream YouTube on smart TVs as well as other options available.
 

My existing Sonos setup just works. I don’t really need any new features to my existing Sonos setup to improve on what I’ve got or want it to do.

Blowed if I going to invest mega bucks on a whole new setup for it to be ‘trashed’ again by Sonos in the few years
 

I was sceptical about the trade up offer in the last quarter of 2019 and wondered where it was going ……. BOOM …. there we have it.

I like many others bought a heap of sonos in the beginning (2009) , then my dad did the same as he  loved it so much he kitted his whole house out with it in 2010. Mainly connects and connect Amps we both have.

i understand that like early Apple products and windows software things move on and that current technologies can’t work with older ones but surely you can’t prevent any ones new sonos equipment from being upgraded with new software and not able to work with the legacy products. I have a mix of legacy and new and for me to trade up it’s going to cost approximately £1500 …… I’ve just spent £400 on a sonos beam in the last 12 months!!!! As for my dad he’ll be around £2K !!!! 
 

It seems a great way to create extra revenue!!! I wish my business was this clever 😡

I’m sure there’s plenty others which will agree that there should be a bigger trade up discount !!! 
 

I like many others in the beginning actually acted as salesmen for Sonos , spreading the word to friends and family who actually bought your products and supported you and this is our thanks.

Thank you.
Email sent.

If you guys go somewhere else, what speakers would you be purchasing?  What other brands continue to support their speakers forever?  I know Bose does not.  Just curious, as I recently purchased a Sonos Beam, Sub and 2 Gen 2 One’s.  I did not see anything out their that had similar support to what Sonos has and if there is something better that will be supported long term would like to know about it.

I think my current system, when it does go obsolete will continue playing - right?  Hopefully, soon Sonos will be releasing a Playbar with HDMI and Atmos, but who knows....

A desperate move by what I assume is a desperate company.   Bankrupt by end of 2020 is my call.  Picked up my first piece of Sonos kit in 2004.  Sorry way to see things end.  As with this announcement, its sell all my Sonos gear time (legacy or new).  Hopefully have some local buyers for the subs and heavier pieces of kit.