Update on the Sonos App from Patrick Spence

Initial vs. sustained are often different.

The next quarter will no doubt be the one where if people have stopped investing in extending systems, or have returned products due to the app issues, we’ll see a better picture.

Also, it appears that word is spreading amongst tech sites, bloggers, reviewers, best buy guides etc. that Sonos is no longer the go-to solution because of the issues, and that is more likely to hit in the run up to Xmas, not to mention the distrust they are building up in the professional installation community where Sonos have hung installers out to dry.

The next quarter has the potential to be very poor, and not just because they have had to delay new products.

Sure, that’s entirely possible. But the reviews specifically of the Ace on consumer press and ecommerce sites are excellent, so there is a potential scenario where Sonos sorts itself out by October and Q4 ends up being a quarter of huge demand for the headphones this Christmas.

Everyone on this forum is acutely across the current Sonos app situation, and those experiencing issues come to the forum and Reddit to find out what is going on - and tech sites and bloggers will always report on things like this - so the picture to us is skewed as one of doom-and-gloom. But anyone who isn't having issues (and God help them if they were to ever mention it), especially if they stream music rather than using music libraries, will be in the many millions - a very healthy and strong market - and so will be oblivious to what is happening and are prime candidates to buy further into the Sonos brand.

Only time will tell which way this tips!

alarms still aren’t working on my Sonos system. When I called support, we troubleshooted for about 40mins but in the end they said it’s not something they can resolve and I’d need to wait for the update. Looks like these updates just keep getting pushed later and later now.

alarms still aren’t working on my Sonos system. When I called support, we troubleshooted for about 40mins but in the end they said it’s something they can resolve and I’d need to wait for the update. Looks like these updates just keep getting pushed later and later now.

Edit - I believe your alarms aren’t saving in the app.

I was trying to help someone last week who had the same issue, so hopefully that requirement for some people’s systems has been logged...

alarms still aren’t working on my Sonos system. When I called support, we troubleshooted for about 40mins but in the end they said it’s something they can resolve and I’d need to wait for the update. Looks like these updates just keep getting pushed later and later now.

Edit - I believe your alarms aren’t saving in the app.

I was trying to help someone last week who had the same issue, so hopefully that requirement for some people’s systems has been logged...

Yes that’s right, alarms aren’t saving. I hope it can get resolved soon

alarms still aren’t working on my Sonos system. When I called support, we troubleshooted for about 40mins but in the end they said it’s something they can resolve and I’d need to wait for the update. Looks like these updates just keep getting pushed later and later now.

Edit - I believe your alarms aren’t saving in the app.

I was trying to help someone last week who had the same issue, so hopefully that requirement for some people’s systems has been logged...

Yes that’s right, alarms aren’t saving. I hope it can get resolved soon

I don’t really use Sonos Alarms very much and mostly prefer Alexa alarms on Sonos instead. Have you tried a reboot of the network to see if that may solve the issue and/or the relevant speaker too. I suggest it because the Sonos alarms here appear to be working and saving okay, so perhaps a reboot will maybe fix things as the Alarms are stored on the player.

Sure, that’s entirely possible. But the reviews specifically of the Ace on consumer press and ecommerce sites are excellent, so there is a potential scenario where Sonos sorts itself out by October and Q4 ends up being a quarter of huge demand for the headphones this Christmas.

Everyone on this forum is acutely across the current Sonos app situation, and those experiencing issues come to the forum and Reddit to find out what is going on - and tech sites and bloggers will always report on things like this - so the picture to us is skewed as one of doom-and-gloom. But anyone who isn't having issues (and God help them if they were to ever mention it), especially if they stream music rather than using music libraries, will be in the many millions - a very healthy and strong market - and so will be oblivious to what is happening and are prime candidates to buy further into the Sonos brand.

I think the fact that Sonos have postponed two product launches this year in the run up to Xmas, have decided they need to sink $20-30m into the new app, and downgraded year end forecasts leans far more to the pessimistic side than your rose tinted view above. If that were more the case, then it would just be us old local library dinosaurs being roasted and Sonos could claim it was all a great success and proceed with great fanfare on new products… if most of your customers were happy, why wouldn’t you?

If any professional installers are reading this I’ll let them chime in on their thoughts on Sonos as a product/company after the last 3 months.

alarms still aren’t working on my Sonos system. When I called support, we troubleshooted for about 40mins but in the end they said it’s something they can resolve and I’d need to wait for the update. Looks like these updates just keep getting pushed later and later now.

Edit - I believe your alarms aren’t saving in the app.

I was trying to help someone last week who had the same issue, so hopefully that requirement for some people’s systems has been logged...

Yes that’s right, alarms aren’t saving. I hope it can get resolved soon

I don’t really use Sonos Alarms very much and mostly prefer Alexa alarms on Sonos instead. Have you tried a reboot of the network to see if that may solve the issue and/or the relevant speaker too. I suggest it because the Sonos alarms here appear to be working and saving okay, so perhaps a reboot will maybe fix things as the Alarms are stored on the player.

Thanks for your help. I’ve tried rebooting all the speakers and turning off and on my WiFi router. Tried it a few weeks ago and just tried it again now to see if any improvement.

when I save an alarm, it looks like it has saved. But then when I swipe up and close the app, reopen it and go back onto the Alarms page, it’s disappeared.

I don’t really use Sonos Alarms very much and mostly prefer Alexa alarms on Sonos instead. Have you tried a reboot of the network to see if that may solve the issue and/or the relevant speaker too. I suggest it because the Sonos alarms here appear to be working and saving okay, so perhaps a reboot will maybe fix things as the Alarms are stored on the player.

Thanks for your help. I’ve tried rebooting all the speakers and turning off and on my WiFi router. Tried it a few weeks ago and just tried it again now to see if any improvement.

whe I save an alarm, it looks like it has saved. But then when I swipe up and close the app, reopen it and go back onto the Alarms page, it’s disappeared.

I’ve just checked again here by creating/saving a new 5am Alarm, then fully closing my own App (slide off screen) but the Alarm just stays ‘put’ here when I reopen it.

Have you tried a different Sonos player, or even a different controller App (if you have those available to you?) to see if that makes any difference.

I was saving the alarm using a Sonos Beam in the Main Bedroom and using an Apple iOS controller.

Sure, that’s entirely possible. But the reviews specifically of the Ace on consumer press and ecommerce sites are excellent, so there is a potential scenario where Sonos sorts itself out by October and Q4 ends up being a quarter of huge demand for the headphones this Christmas.

Everyone on this forum is acutely across the current Sonos app situation, and those experiencing issues come to the forum and Reddit to find out what is going on - and tech sites and bloggers will always report on things like this - so the picture to us is skewed as one of doom-and-gloom. But anyone who isn't having issues (and God help them if they were to ever mention it), especially if they stream music rather than using music libraries, will be in the many millions - a very healthy and strong market - and so will be oblivious to what is happening and are prime candidates to buy further into the Sonos brand.

I think the fact that Sonos have postponed two product launches this year in the run up to Xmas, have decided they need to sink $20-30m into the new app, and downgraded year end forecasts leans far more to the pessimistic side than your rose tinted view above. If that were more the case, then it would just be us old local library dinosaurs being roasted and Sonos could claim it was all a great success and proceed with great fanfare on new products… if most of your customers were happy, why wouldn’t you?

If any professional installers are reading this I’ll let them chime in on their thoughts on Sonos as a product/company after the last 3 months.

It’s not my view. It’s a potential scenario where people who have not encountered the negative press or who aren’t having issues buy into Sonos’ new headphones. It is very similar to the potential scenario where Sonos has a terrible quarter for Ace sales. I believe both scenarios are of equal validity, one just happens to be one you disagree with.

Postponing two product launches, which has led to their reforecast, is down to their need to focus on fixing the app - it’s not the result of poor Ace sales. My point is entirely about Ace sales, not about their end of year revenue which they are right to be pessimistic about.

Thanks for your help. I’ve tried rebooting all the speakers and turning off and on my WiFi router. Tried it a few weeks ago and just tried it again now to see if any improvement.

when I save an alarm, it looks like it has saved. But then when I swipe up and close the app, reopen it and go back onto the Alarms page, it’s disappeared.

You aren’t doing anything wrong. Hopefully Sonos fixes the app, firmware and figures out how to run the cloud service reliably in our lifetimes and maybe things like this will work for everyone again.

I suspect Sonos will come to regret launching the headset because it is premium priced and offers no real benefit over its competition unless you own a sonos soundbar (which is very much a niche market) and really want that feature. Going into a very crowded segment as a new entrant means adding something that doesn’t exist in the market or you can do it much better - this is not clear outside if you own a Sonos soundbar (not their regular speakers).

Despite the app furore (which has forced them to reforecast their full-year number downwards due to delaying launch of two new products), Sonos last week reported a 6% year-on-year revenue rise, “driven by the success of the Sonos Ace”.

Spin is a wonderful thing for public announcements, but the devil is in the detail.

In their published figures, prior 3 month year on year was healthy and grew, they also had some significant expenses during the same period last year as a result of planned restructuring and abandonment costs.

If you look at the prior 9 month year on year figures beside them it is a different story. Down in all regions with the EMEA taking a significant downturn. The 9 month figures also includes the end of previous year holiday sales figures.

You would hope a small time window including a new product launch would see a rise. Most products do as it’s the pre-order shipments and early adopters driving those sales.

The next quarter is going to be the interesting one. Depending which way the US economy goes the US region could end up looking more like the EMEA region does over 9 months.

I agree there will be many buyers either online or in store who won’t even have looked at reviews, recommendations or blogs online,

But shoppers are much wiser to the sales in the run up the holiday season that have been happening the past few years. Sonos are going to be in a difficult market when up against Bose QC, Sony who are recognised, generally well regarded consumer names at this price point and get significant discounts and Apple. If the US economy is turning are Sonos able to discount enough to stay in competition or when faced with a one off luxury item $200-$300 spend for existing highly rated products vs a $400+ spend on a new entrant, will enough pay the extra on the new entrant.