End of Software Support - Clarifications

Somebody help me with this.

https://techknowbits.com/2020/01/21/insider-selling-sonos-inc-nasdaqsono-insider-sells-36453-shares-of-stock-updated-updated.html 

How can Nicholas Millington, Chief Product Officer, possibly sell a third of his shares netting $578,144.58 on January 2nd right before this end of life announcement? He must have known everything about the legacy and recycling issues given his job.  Surely the SEC will jump on this.

Johannst what you may fail to see is that these weren’t/aren’t advertised/marketed/sold as phones or throwaway consumer electronics.  These are WHOLE HOME AUDIO systems!  And it’s not just some individual phone you can upgrade it’s a HOUSE FULL of audio equipment that cost many of us thousands to over $10k invested over time when we could.  Stop this FALSE equivalency to phones and other tech gear.  It’s just not fair to people who have invested in Sonos and are sick at their investments being devalued and their audio experience disrupted. 

We all hope there will be a satisfactory solution sooner than later. 

Agreed.

Now you are here, can you shed any light on what is the likely outcome of all of this.

If i split the system into legacy and modern to keep the modern units up to date, will i be able to, for example play my MP3’s from my NAS on both modern and legacy equipment in sync ?

There seems to be a lot of confusion about this, and if the 2 systems will at all be able to talk together or if the 2 will be totally seperated and not able to talk to eachother.

Good point

@Ryan S : I gather from your posts today that you don't anticipate substantial new details on the Legacy option until May. Could you please confirm that?

I have a new Play:5 (unopened in box) and Move (within return window), and I'd happily keep it all in my Legacy system long-term if that's a solution Sonos works out. But if we're not going to learn more in the coming days, Id prefer to just return them, wait, and not get wrapped up in this until May. Thanks.

Good to hear. They made it clear to me that they're grafting through with this. Just as I had hoped!

Anyone with an issue go through the email procedure, get your points down and you never know you might even get a call back from the man himself.

Ryan S I can see your busy moderating language and probably contributing on other threads but can you please answer my clear questions in this post please,

You can always return them and then buy them again, come may if they end up being reasonable and finding a solution that suits you.

That's exactly the plan, if we're not getting more info in the coming days. I was going to return them last weekend and then last night, but keep thinking “Well, Sonos will probably have something figured out tomorrow to diffuse this bomb so I'll wait.”

Interestingly if you check out Charts on the MarketWatch website as the price has begun to fall today someone/thing/company/fund or whatever has gone in aNd bought large amounts of shares buoying up the price again, Hmmm?!

This is my first post on this forum but I felt it was important enough to sign up to express my concerns over the announcement last week.  For the past week I have felt a great deal of rage aimed towards the company, a feeling I can honestly say really caught me off guard.  After a week I have calmed down and given some careful consideration and am not sure whether I will stay with Sonos or not.  None of the products I own are legacy so really no action on my part is required.  This really comes down to whether or not to continue to support a company with my purchasing.  Not a big deal for a large company but I will be very interested to see over the next few months what type of company they are now. 

In my simple mind there are two types of companies.  There are those I trust are looking out for the best interests of their customers.  These companies are generally product and service focused and while they need to be profitable to remain in business, they will not screw over there customers in order to increase profits.  Then there are companies who only focus on “revenue streams” and shareholder value, usually run by MBAs, where the products are simply a way to create revenue.

We all deal with both types of companies in our daily lives.  The difference is that the first type of company is a pleasure to deal with and is the default option whenever we need something they offer.  I have gone to the same barber for 25 years.  I never feel he is going to screw me over to get an increase in revenue.  He offers a service,  He occasionally raises his prices and I accept that he needs to do that to stay in business.  The second type of company I only buy from when absolutely necessary and then approach the transaction as a necessary evil.  If only one company sells something I need, I have to buy from them.  But I don’t trust that they wouldn’t try to screw me over if it would increase their profits. 

I have used Sonos products for probably 7 or 8 years and always felt Sonos was the first type of company.  Their products were top notch, more expensive but were not disposable.  Long term CEO/founder.  Essentially like many others here, it was the only option I looked at.

Last weeks announcement changed all that.  Essentially it felt like a company I had a great deal of respect for violated my trust.  Not because old technology doesn’t get obsolete.  But because of the way current management decided to deal with the problem.  Instead of trying to come up with a solution to the problem to assist customers make the transition, management decided this was an opportunity to make a profit from it.  A problem they helped create by selling underspec’d products as recently as a few years ago.

First, learning that some in management cashed out large amounts of stock before this decision was announced, to me is disgraceful.  It is a giant screw you to your customers.  Like the captain of a ship taking the life boat while the passengers are still on board.

Second, offering only a thirty percent upgrade discount knowing full well they would still be making a substantial profit on these sales.  

Third, forcing users to brick their old systems to get that discount.  Why not just mark the serial numbers that received the discount so they can only get the discount once?

Fourth, making it sound like there is no technical solution to this issue when clearly there are several.  It is just much more profitable to force a customer to upgrade than it is to keep multiple code bases or develop some kind of bridge device.  

At any rate I think that many of us are now simply cynical towards the company now and feel that a once great company has been taken over by business grads and investors who feel that the products are irrelevant and that the revenue stream and stock value are what is important.  It may be, and I hope is a mistaken belief.  The next few months will tell.  If I see a company making a serious attempt to assist customers make a transition rather than trying to profit from this transition, I may go back to purchasing.  If not, I will not purchase any more of their products as their are many other competitors in the market.  And not that I trust the Amazons or Googles any more, just that I will expect them to screw me over for more profit, so I will just buy the cheapest product that meets my needs.

Again, I hope I am wrong.  I really would prefer to return to a world where I believed Sonos was a great company and could recommend them to anyone looking for a good modern audio system.

@mrwarped  If the system and setup continues to stay largely the same, the local library and line in shouldn’t have any issues that I can foresee. That said, you may have to make sure network connection changes are backwards compatible (not likely to be an issue for many years) and that you don’t go and convert your music library into some brand new format that we can’t support on legacy devices. So if basic file sharing and the music library stays the same, you shouldn’t run into any trouble.

50 pages back I felt the same as you. A quick email and a phone call back from Sonos HQ and within 5 minutes chatting it was clear to me that Sonos are indeed still the company that we all started out with. My impression is that they are working to put this right!

If in doubt send the an email with your concerns and see what happens. You'll be pleasently surprised at just how proactive this company is with its community followers and support.

Ryan S thankyou for your reply, I’ll take it that you guys will continue to support legacy thru the app for Several years to come also?

@Ryan S You should really compile a FAQ on this asap, there are many of us wondering, and maybe some are angry for no reason? 

Yeah, we’ll have more on that to come in May. Also, it’s worth noting on the music library front that if it’s coming from a computer, OS changes to the computer could affect the sharing permissions in a way that could degrade or stop things from working correctly.

I’m sorry but this is complete BS. This is exactly why I didn’t want to do my whole house in Sonos. When I was designing my whole house audio people would tell me go Sonos. I was like and what if they stop supporting it? When are whole house speakers going to stop being supported? Never. I’m glad I only invested in 4 pieces but I will never invest in another one that’s for sure.

I’ll assume that Support are limited as to what they can say, as the company is working out what they will do. So, better to reply with factual info. which is fine by me. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we get some clarity. It’s in their interests to answer fully as soon as they can, as I suspect people postponing purchases of Sonos equipment is evident in their bottom line. 

What were the issues and what were the solutions?

My astroturfing radar is going off, I hope I'm wrong but I'm seeing a heck of a lot of praise with zero details. If Sonos suddenly had an answer to the issues here I would expect them to be publishing it everywhere 

Sonos, If there really is an hardware limitation, you have to propose extremely rapidely a truelly eco-friendly and client-friendly solution (even replacing some hardware). Otherwise “this is the end my friend”.

I agree, if the answer that has been provided is so fantastic, then we should all know what it is. Until this “rainbows and unicorns” thinking is demonstrated by facts, I will continue to believe what I know and what I know is about a week ago I felt like Sonos had shafted me. Nothing, repeat NOTHING, has changed since that moment even though there has been a lot of talk.

If they are so ‘proactive’ then why are they doing this on an email by email basis?

indeed, they could be posting on here instead and we would be all happy. The fact that they are not speaks volumes.

Every answer to every question that appears in this thread (or at least the vast majority) on a repeated cycle has been answered. This thread is serving as a venting room, and as well it should. But inevitably after new folks arrive and express their fears and frustrations at this news (again, warranted) they often continue on within the thread with questions and assumptions that have invariably already been covered, both earlier (repeatedly) in this same thread, and elsewhere on the board.
Just pointing this out because while anyone is free to ask or state anything they like in this particular conversation, they might be less frustrated and find answers more quickly by either reading back or going to one of the other more specific and calm threads. (And I say this after initially venting here myself last week). This thread is a churn that buries good information within a very short period of time.  Just saying.  

Supreme irony here from Sonos CEO Patrick Spence in Nov of 2019.  

Spence: “The interesting flip side of that as we became a public company was a lot of people saying, ‘Wait, why do you build products that last 5 to 10 years? That’s crazy.'” 

Hoping for a quick course correction by Sonos...

https://www.fastcompany.com/90434720/your-sonos-speaker-might-be-the-most-eco-friendly-device-you-own