End of Software Support - Clarifications

Wow 

Am probably not going to add anything that hasn’t already being said.  But I think SONOS need to understand the level of concern out there in their loyal customer base.

At the moment I don’t have any kit marked as legacy, thankfully.  But the announcement has left me very fearful and has shaken my confidence in SONOS.  I’m asking myself, at what point will my Play 1’s and Play 5(gen2) be earmarked as legacy?

Stupid me hadn’t even considered that SONOS would do this.  These are not smartphones that are physically handled and knocked about for 2-3 years, which still makes obsolescence hard to swallow but not so much of an issue.

But in my foolish mind I thought I was paying the kind of money I have for SONOS because it’s top quality and I thought it was going to last (10-15 years would be my expectation), minimum. I hadn’t really thought about the software side of things. Maybe that’s my fault?

I’m still holding out some hope SONOS can turn this around. I hope they can find a workable solution for the kit they have just earmarked as legacy and hope they can offer some guarantees around the rest of the SONOS, and confirm that it will not be declared obsolete when the physical hardware is still working fine. That’s just an insane waste of materials and money.

Bottom line is that all SONOS spend is now on hold. I won’t be adding to my SONOS system until I have the assurances and confidence that SONOS will continue to support the kit that I have and any kit that I would buy in future for the rest of it’s natural life.

Thanks did not know about the Amazon device forum, will look there.

To maybe answer your question RE: Sonos Connect Amazon equivalent - I’m looking at the Echo Link Amp and Echo Link at the moment among many other options (check them out on Amazon if you haven’t seen), and trying to figure out my going forward strategy - as I’m done with Sonos. 

I am doing a backyard, California room renovation and was going to go with Moves for around pool and Amps and a Playbar, Sub for TV etc, but of course I’ve discarded that idea.  Looking at the Bose 51 hard wired outdoor speakers now (instead of Moves), and trying to decide how to get rid of Sonos completely for the rest of the project . . .

. . . even thinking about a hardwired AV receiver now . . .

. . . it’s crazy like someone said above.  Sonos was a default no question purchase before this fiasco for me.  I wouldn’t even consider price or competitively shop - that’s how well the previous leaders built the Sonos brand!  And I’ve gone from that to “never again” in 1 week - and I’m telling everyone I brought over to Sonos to get out of their ecosystem because they can change your functionality (or shut you down) on a whim (based upon what they see as to their financial benefit) - and they are testing those whims now. 

I am convinced they may go out of business because of this brand destruction - and all my speakers will eventually die.  In my 52 years of life I cannot think of any company that I have turned against so quickly . . . it’s amazing really . . . it would be hard to do worse in terms of destroying a brand if one really, really (did I say really) tried.  I laugh and imagine the leaders at Sonos sitting around the boardroom table (like in a Dilbert cartoon) and saying - “hey, let’s destroy this company and our brand - who has the best idea about how we can do it?”

The sad thing is, the employees that built this (and us the customers) will be the ones that suffer.  The leaders will profit when someone swoops in and buys them to pick-up the pieces after the stock drops to 5 . . .

I think the miscalculation that Sonos and Patrick made was that they did not understand the intelligence of their average user.  People agreed to pay a Sonos premium because they understood the value in backwards compatibility, a whole house system (ie: we do not want segregated legacy and new systems), etc (ie: ROI).  And also, to pay the premium, their customers naturally have to be somewhat successful in general and have substantial disposable income.  People that fit that description are not dumb and can read through corporate BS when they see it.

yes, they are  synced :)

You are not going to support the first speaker I ever bought in Dec 14 - meaning 5.5 years by May 2020. Not very long…..

I have bought other products since and never heard “ only 5 years of support “

from when?- when introduced or when bought? who knew?- buried in small print somewhere i guess that was not made clear before the product is bought.

? no offer to allow upgrade of software into the “ old” speaker? - no just buy a new one at a 30% discount - which is a terrible offer.

This is terrible support from a product I have admired and bought for myself and family members. Hard to think I’d ever buy again, Total lack of customer focus - especially to early adopters that helped Sonos get to a publicly traded company. A fatal mistake to not remember “ who brung ya”

Makes me think time to go back to wired speakers- I have some over 25 years old that sound pretty good- and now sound better….

The really sad thing is that, despite previously being a loyal Sonos customer with a fair amount of kit, I and other customers I know are actively hoping for the stock price to crash further.

For the simple reason that it would be that event, and that alone which would force Sonos to really try to provide a solution (either techinical or financial). The CEO letter was simply too vague to insipire full confidence that they were not still playing for time and hoping the whole thing would blow over.

I suspect a lot of the investors out there might be assuming that a) the CEO letter was sufficient to restore confidence, and b) that most of the protests are from the usual small core of customers who threaten to desert a brand, but seldom do.

It will take an intelligent investor to realise that Sonos customers are not generally of ‘the usual suspects’ variety and that the sudden reversal of loyalty from this large and financially important base could really damage revenue in a big way - not to mention discourage the many people who had finally decided to fork out more than they wanted to to buy their first Sonos system because they believed that, at the end of the day, the Sonos brand had merited cachet thanks to endless recommendations from existing users.

If the stock price declines another 10% during this week, then that will hopefully lead to a more substantive announcement…

From my limited technical knowledge, and looking at the spec of the now ‘legacy’ kit over the past few years, it does look rather as though Sonos have been negligent in not revising the hardware to take advantage of dramatic falls in memory prices and thereby give the kit a longer potential life. Given the retail price of e.g. the Play:5, I think it was not too much to ask for the minor cost I assume it would have taken.

As it stands, the comment that seems most pertinent in this entire debacle was from a user who said (from memory) that it was a bit crazy that Sonos could engineer a piece of kit to drive non-Sonos speakers (the Connect:Amp), but - apparently - not a piece of kit to drive Sonos‘ own ‘legacy’ speakers.

Personally, I would have said this would be a win-win solution for the CEO - I’d be willing to pay a small amount for this kit for each of my legacy devices if it guaranteed a decent shelf-life, and it would immediately signal to existing and prospective Sonos customers that they could continue to have faith in Sonos.

I definitely think they need to revisit the memory spec of all their existing equipment - which in some cases might again seem rather mean in 5 years time.

Not only will owners of the company's first-generation speakers and Sonos Connect and Bridge not be able to update their home audio system soon, but they'll be blocked from updating newer devices that are connected to the so-called "legacy" products.

Bizarrely, Sonos boasted in the SAME press release that "92 percent of the products we’ve ever shipped are still in use today". 

Sorry, I probably wasn’t clear enough.  I want to know how to determine this for other equipment I don’t yet own but might want to purchase. 

Sonos please give us a ROADMAP by serial number, build date, or data from the app that CLEARLY details if the unit has what it takes to be MODERN.  Give us a simple matrix and be transparent about it quickly please!  Transparency is one of your core values after all. 

Either that or give is a SELL BY or USE BY date stamped on every box and product going forward.  This is home AUDIO equipment not some top-secret high-tech military gear.  

Executives from SONOS, especially Patrick Spence, what you did reminds me of Nortel Do you recall them they it was a fantastic company just like yours but it when bankrupt.

Luckily for them they didn’t go to jail…

Did anyone responsible for his appointment get wealthy out of Blackberry failing? If so, then there’s your answer.

There are plenty of people happy to ruin a company worth billions if it’ll increase their personal wealth somehow. 

Bittersweet, just returned my Move for store credit. Now I only own 9 speakers, 4 of which are Legacy. I don’t see SONOS surviving this fiasco unless they develop another bridge to keep it all together. One email just lopped off thousands of unpaid salespeople/advocates for their brand.