End of Software Updates for Legacy Products

No they’re not. Here’s the one year graph. The market hasn’t digested this news yet, but I doubt they will crash, so stop being the bearer of fake news - it’s just not helpful.

thank god, I only have the connect:amp.  goodbye, sonos! 

Couldn’t be more disappointed in Sonos for making what I consider to be a terrible business decision. I have been a loyal Sonos customer for 5 years and have spent several thousand dollars on their equipment(which is now worthless) and recommended it to many friends. I hope there is enough dissent here for this decision to be reconsidered. If not, I do not plan to support this brand going forward and would urge friends not to as well. I look forward to others updates on competitor products for replacement. 

Terrible move Sonos, if devices bought in 2015 won't be  supported then consumers will think hard before investing in any new Sonos products. After Play 5 gen 1 what will be obsolete next? Sub, Playbar, Play 3?

I think SONOS need to spend some time examining another technical solution. There needs to be a way to support and update new products while maintaining a software interface to enable continued usage of legacy products that can’t utilize new features. Incentives to upgrade should be because of sticky new features, not the “gun to the head” approach of upgrade or it will fail.

This approach of upgrade or everything will eventually fail, sounds effective from a sales perspective, but I suspect it will ultimately damage the company significantly. Here’s what I’m struggling with - Why would I pay to upgrade my legacy products when the expensive upgraded products have an unknown lifespan? When you have just demonstrated that you will forcibly make my investment obsolete at the drop of a hat? Are you guaranteeing a lifespan for me if I do upgrade? I haven’t seen that, so a far better option seems to be to look elsewhere in what is now a more competitive space. 

On the one hand digital products will have a shorter lifespan, but these are high end AUDIO products and the benchmark for this space is far longer than the 7 years I’ve had my equipment before it becomes unsupported and obsolete.

SONOS was around before the streaming revolution, so the expectation was certainly of a lifespan longer than 3-15 years.

I used to be a Director of a tech company and have navigated Y2K and the SNA-IP evolution, moving from mainframes to modular, distributed systems. I was personally responsible for a program of upgrade projects. We managed to support legacy systems within the new infrastructure. Migration to brand new equipment was slow and natural over several years. This is a far simpler space and I’m sure if there was a will, then there could be a solution that would give a far better, defined period of support for legacy systems.

Given the lack of an external factor driving a change in the basic underlying technology, I bet that memory and hardware capacity are still sufficient in legacy products to continue support and compatibility (Perhaps without new features that have a higher demand). I think there is just no WILL to continue to update and support legacy products.

Why would SONOS want to support those products, with no new revenue stream? It is far cheaper to remove support. The consequence though, is that you may damage your customer base your reputation and not see the projected financial benefit of new equipment purchases. This is a very risky move, especially in an era of social media outrage.

My advice to SONOS would be to continue supporting and updating legacy equipment, finding a technical solution to running newer and older equipment on the same network. Be honest about the hardware abilities of the legacy equipment, rather than the vague issues that have been floated to justify the current decision. Give a period of time longer than a measly 5 months, and show best effort to support as far as you can. Give your customers some must-have features to entice upgrading. Offer upgrade discounts as a carrot, without a stick on the other end. When you do HAVE to discontinue, communicate exactly why (not this nebulous reason that looks cynical and profit based) and you will likely maintain your customer base and ensure the future of your company.

Let’s be honest, without an honest approach where it looks like SONOS have done their best, there is going to be a lot of negativity that will hurt sales, consumer confidence and could be a potential millstone around the neck of what was once an admirable and groundbreaking small company.

Technically old products will not be “bricked”; you can use them, hopefully… But the last update or two basic things like adding to or updating my music library (mostly streamed from my NAS after finally ripping all my CDs) has been disabled util everything as updated so I have little hope my current devices will be really useful in June.

Of course, if you add a new device for its new features, it won’t work until you remove or update all of your old devices.

The forced bricking of trade-in units is ridiculous. I suppose they are sustaining their bonuses… And being told I need to replace all my old devices by end of May is a slap in the face. Especially with the big price jumps so even at 70% of retail that’s a LOT of money.

I’ve sent something similar to the same people, and attached your text for good measure along with my own comments.

What other brands do you all recommend?  I’m done with Sonos and have learned my lesson with “smart speakers”.

I’m thinking a high quality “dumb” all-in-one speaker or split amp and speaker system and a cheap “smart” adapter that works well with apple.

And go!!

Yup… Came here to voice my displeasure with this also.  I will not be buying a single thing from them again.  While my system isn’t the largest, I have spent good money on this and well now, I am now looking at another solution and will be putting my items up for sale.  This is horrible and a sad day for us Sonos owners.

The class action is coming!!!