End of Software Support - Clarifications

The newer version of the Connect and the newer Play:5 aren’t affected, and 2 years ago you should have been sold those. You should have gotten an e-mail listing any systems that are affected.

Also it looks very unlikely that staying in Legacy mode will be an issue with playing LPs (hopefully) as stuff like Internet radio, Spotify and other Internet services appear to be the main risk.

I was thinking of expanding my Sonos even further with a Subwoofer, Soundbar, and the new Move. Now I will reconsider as I would be afraid the soundbar and subwoofer which hasn’t been updated for many years will be “outdated” before I know it. Time to look into Bose or another product line. Sorry Sonos up until now I have lived your products. I don’t know who thought planned obsolescence would help sell any new product should be fired. 

Good bye and good luck Sonos hope you stock continues to crash.

When I called Sonos and asked how could they do this to their loyal customer base and stakeholders…  I was told they can’t do any more than 30% and they said that was a fair deep discount… REALLY???? What a Slap in the face… As for the stakeholders (Stockholders), they didn’t care… I was told that all stocks go up and down… and they said what a great Dec their stock has… But now that they have F..ed over thier base take a look at the stock now.. 

I have spent the last few days taking this news in and first of all, I honestly felt sadness and disappointment. Speaking from my own experience with Sonos equipment over 7 years and a few years before that researching the topic, my set up has worked really well in all respects.
Over the years I have recommended your speakers and set up to countless family and friends – who have also gone on, after doing their own due diligence, and paid decent sums of money on your products and been pleased with the results. I feel gutted to have recommended Sonos now.

However, my feelings have now turned to frustration and anger.

I have invested in 10x devices, of various sorts, and now find that 3 items have transferred to ‘legacy’ status. I agree with so many of the comments on this forum post and like many others purchased your equipment based on the attraction of having whole house audio coverage and this is the way we listen to our music. If I choose to separate out the system into ‘current’ and ‘legacy’ it will just not work in my open plan environment in a seamless manner and I will NOT be going down that route – I want to be able to use all my speakers together not separately.

So, I will be forced, come May 2020, to retain the software at that point, no future updates and things in the short term may well run as they do now – for a while.

All I am asking for is that the ‘legacy’ items just play music with the other speakers as a whole house system – since that is all I need them to do and were bought to do. I totally understand that other whizz bang options of voice control etc. will not be possible on these ‘legacy’ devices.

But, and this is what concerns me more, I can expect a reduction in functionality, although no detail on those reductions until May. as your press release mentions:
 

Only a month or so ago my Samsung tablet and my wife’s tablet – both running the Sonos app - became obsolete as a controller (Android 6). I run my digital music library through a NAS drive connected to the network – took hundreds of hours to transfer the physical media (LP’s & CD’s) onto it – but your software would not let me update the Music Library UNTIL I had updated the tablets to the latest software. Guess what? Yep I couldn’t update them since you have made them obsolete. Luckily, we have mobile phones which can control the Sonos system.

I find this trend extremely worrying moving forward.

1 x Bridge – not used for a while since using WiFi network - BUT still worked perfectly

2 x PLAY 5 speakers – now tagged as ‘legacy’ - BUT still working perfectly – no problems

2 x branded Tablets – now unable to upgrade Sonos app - BUT still working perfectly on all other apps

• So, what next Sonos??           
• Next 6-12 months my PLAY 1’s go into ‘legacy’ status??
• Followed by SUB, PLAYBAR, PLAY 3’s a few years later??
• What happens if I had my mobile phone stolen, or gone out and bought a brand-new tablet, then loaded up the Sonos app again?? Surely it will load up the app to the latest release and then won’t run the ‘legacy’ system of 10x speakers I have at home??
• Is this the sort of ‘disrupt access to services and overall functionality’??
• These are the sort of queries we as a community need answered in a timely manner in order to decide on our route forward

I have worked all my life in Electronics / Software and Manufacturing and am very familiar with the huge improvements in tech over the last few decades along with the costs to a business of supporting older products. But you surely employ some smart Software and Hardware engineers who I’m sure would relish the challenge of resolving this issue to interoperate aging and newer systems and continuing to support a long and established customer base?

It’s all about a recurring revenue business model but sadly Sonos has missed the point by a country mile. Most of us have bought a speaker, been impressed and continued to grow our systems over time. You could have continued for years picking up new customers and additions to systems from longer term customers too.

But the loyal customer base are NOT what Sonos want any more since we live in a ‘Consumerism World’ now, where everything is throwaway – even expensive items. What I find even more offensive are products that still work well, with no problems, are still seen as worthless. We should be absolutely reducing consumption of raw materials, the idea that these products could be on the landfill site after five years is outrageous.

I have been brand loyal – along with many other people - because the products work and will continue to work because they are just speakers and feel bitterly let down by your organisation.

I can honestly say that this is AN EPIC FAIL on your behalf and sadly I join other voices in actively discouraging other potential customers from purchasing your products if asked.

You need to rethink this decision at the highest level.

Is it me alone (I am sure its not) that SONOS is practically abandoning those of us...many of us, who have “invested in an ecosystem” while I ignored other competitors to build a whole home entertainment system out.

I personally started buying SONOS in 2013/14.

Living Room:

TV Playbar ($699)/Sub ($699)/2 x Play 1 @ $199 each.

Kitchen: Play 1

Dinning Room, Play 1

Front Room: Play 1

Bedroom, Play 5

Home Office: Play 5 

Plus he $49 bridge you had to by then toss away (if you wanted to) because they developed a WiFI only way with no need for the Bridge...the I bought then Boost for $99 which creates a “dedicated” WiFI network proprietary to just SONOS devices in the hopes of improved performance/no dropping out etc..

On top of all this, this ecosystem has driven increased sales for most all the major streaming services...from Spotify to Apple Music to Amazon Music, Pandora, and the list is LONG all those they partner with.  Spotify has a wonderful integration with SONOS off MAC or PC’s (I have both.).

Why the rant?

Lets clarify my investment just in SONOS Hardware: ~$3300.  Its like a new addiction!

I/We are being asked to take our investment and either: 

1: Not see any future upgrades pushed.  Matter of fact, We will have to move our “legacy” system into the “Assisted Living home group” where we get no upgrades.

or

We are bricked and the system won’t play.  Whatacompany.

2: Upgrade and trade in our old, (I don’t feel it’s that old)...with the plan of getting a whopping 30% trade in credit.

So I trade in a Play 5 and get 30% off $499 and get $150 off so I still pay $350 and I am supposed to forget the $499 I paid helping SONOS grow?

That I told 4 friends who were clueless SONOS existed years ago and they all have systems bigger than mine!  Not even a finders fee.  Wonder how they are taking this news? .

Basically, If I trade in all my speakers, I get to spend $2300 on top of the $3300 I already spent so SONOS wants to bump sales and I’ve now got a $5610 investment now in <5 years and I’ve been creditied a whole $990?

What I do NOT, for the life of me get, is what amazing new technology the new products bring?  I care not about Alexa….I care maybe a little about WiFI 6 Once the specs get ratified to where chipsets and SDK’s are compliant...not early adopter stuff.   Initially, SONOS only registered on 2.4 GHz spectrum, not 5G, unless someone can correct me, they were using old but relevant WiFI chipsets…

What am I missing? Instead of the blanket statement “..the need to be able to keep up with new technologies thus we need to deep 6 the ‘older’ speakers”, tell us what those wonderful features and technologies coming are we can expect...whats the foundation on?  Maybe we all have to go buy a WiFI6 router now? 

lastly, if I invested another $2300 just to have the latest SONOS...whats to say in 2023 we wont be asked to do this again?

Barking Mad

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know that your (ill-advised) decision around end-of-life strategy is now hitting main news outlets in UK. It will most definitely affect your reputation and sales in a very negative way, as your clients will vote with their feet in their next purchase decisions.

Please see link below.

Guardian News

Not saying that this will happen, but there are plenty of examples in history when these kind of policy decisions cause irreparable damages to a company.

Sustainable development Sonos doesn't know what is it apparently. I'm so disappointed of this organisation. I'll never spent money anymore for a Sonos product. It's over for you!

Hmm, spend in excess of £1,000 to replace kit that is currently working prefectly so that it could cope with possible future pie in the sky, and then have to do it again in five years time - I don’t think so. Time to re-evaluate my home music strategy.