Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
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We announced yesterday that some of our oldest Sonos products will be moving into a legacy mode in May of 2020. Our commitment is to support products with regular software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting products far longer.

Here is some public information we’ve shared, gathered into one place to respond to some of your questions in one easy thread, so that people can find the correct information easily.

Beginning in May, software updates and new features from Sonos will only be delivered to systems with only modern products.

After May, systems that include legacy products will continue to work as before - but they will no longer receive software updates or new features.

Sonos will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes, but our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

We don’t expect any immediate impact to your experience, but access to services and overall functionality will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their own services and features.

Customers with both legacy and modern products have time to decide what option is best for them. You can continue to use your whole system in legacy mode - in this case, it will stop receiving updates and new features.

You will also be able to separate your legacy products from your modern products, so that the modern products can still receive updates and new features, and legacy products can still be used separately. We’ll have more information on how to do this in May when you can take that action.

Another option available to all customers with legacy products is to take advantage of the Trade Up program, which allows you to upgrade older Sonos products to modern ones with a 30% discount. Trade Up will be open to customers at any time should they decide to upgrade.

We recognize this is new for Sonos owners, just as it is for Sonos. We are committed to help you by making options available to you to support the best decision for your home.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate with asking.

Update 2/22: A message from our CEO

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. That’s the intent of the trade up program we launched for our loyal customers.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn’t exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

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john at poulton

Enthusiast I

I use my system to play my own music, set alarms and to listen to Radio using TuneIn and have little interest in music streaming services. If I’m honest I find the Play 1s to be virtually as good as the Play 5s in terms of the sound quality but the best thing about the 5s is the line-in function and headphone socket, features that I’ve found very useful but which were not incorporated into the less expensive speakers.

Yesterday’s e mail from Sonos has now basically informed me that the bulk of my system will no longer be supported from May 2020 and that if I continue to use it in combination with my Play 1s and Beam they too will be unable to receive updates meaning that over time the entire system will lose some functionality.

I simply cannot afford to replace my entire Sonos system so my knee-jerk reaction is to list the Beam on Ebay whilst it’s still new enough to achieve a sale price roughly equal to what I paid for it and to then allow my system to run until it fails and, in the meantime research what alternatives are available for someone, like me, who simply wants to listen to my CD collection.

I will however wait until May to see what the as yet unannounced work-around to run legacy speakers on a separate Sonos system involves.

My faith in Sonos right now is shattered. Whilst I understand that nothing lasts forever I don’t think it unreasonable to expect very, very expensive equipment that can still work as it was initially intended to should no longer be updatable purely because the developers want their customers to alter their listening habits. So Sonos please tell me why I should even consider buying more of your products or recommend them to others.

In comparison to many other concerned Sonos owners I am quite fortunate as my only legacy products are 3 x Play 5s + Bridge, all now over 7 years old. Unlike later models these (Gen1) 5s have “line in” functionality through which they can be hooked up to any device with a headphone socket and then used as standalone speakers for TVs, mp3 players, CD players, Tablets etc. I occasionally deliver music presentations to small groups of people and take one of my Play 5s to the venue where I connect it to my iPad from where I can then play the appropriate music.

Now I’m not too technically minded so can anyone say whether or not they think that function will or will not require further updates? If they will continue to work indefinitely in that capacity then, although far from fulfilling the entire range of functions for which they were designed and sold to me, there will still be a use to which they can be put. This in itself might be sufficient reason for some owners to hesitate before considering the dreaded ‘recycle mode’. I have ‘retired’ TVs in 3 bedrooms that would benefit from better sound - just a thought.

I said in my earlier post that to me the difference in sound quality between my Play 5s and Play 1s is barely discernible but I know that as an ‘older’ person that is more likely to be down to my hearing. However, that being the case if, and at the moment it’s a big ‘if’, I do eventually decide to replace my Play 5s with Sonos equipment it will be with the significantly cheaper “1s” and they will be bought from where (and when) the price is right - Black Friday, or Jan sales (maybe even cheaper than a 30% trade up discount). By their latest proposal Sonos now seem to be suggesting to their customers that their products are no longer investments in a system that can be built upon but disposables with an anticipated lifespan of just 5 years or so, in which case why buy the expensive speakers if the cheaper ones do the job just as well? Maybe even the IKEA Symfonisk speakers will suffice, they have been getting quite good reviews.

Of course Sonos, I would prefer a solution that would allow me to continue using my legacy speakers, until they reach their natural end, for the purpose I bought them, streaming my locally stored music collection and Radio stations throughout my home, nothing more, nothing less.

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augustwest

Enthusiast II

Robert Scoble has lost his mind over this announcement. It’s always good for a company like SONOS to lose an influencer like Scoble.

https://twitter.com/Scobleizer/status/1219799408973213697

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OliverC

Lyricist II

Sonos have removed any incentive for the many of us with ‘legacy’ setups to buy new Sonos speakers. Even if you have no anger towards them for their decisions, there’s no brand loyalty to fall back on when you’re starting again. I think most people would look at what else is out there, which is what I will be doing. I was so close to snapping up some more Play:1s or Ones, but I don’t think I will anymore, there’s no point. Sonos is a legacy brand for me now.

(30% isn’t an incentive).

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augustwest

Enthusiast II

Interesting that with all the furore ongoing there’s no hint of crisis management PR getting involved. Leaves the impression that this reaction has been factored in and doesn’t require any additional handling.

It seems clear from the SEC filing that they were expecting considerable flak about this announcement, and have factored it in to their business plan. So I think that it’s just a case of them being fully prepared to lose a few legacy customers - who are no longer buying much anyway….

it may have been factored in but I’m fairly sure not at this level, and now the media outlets are starting to show interest this is rather embarrassing for sonos

So far, maybe a couple of thousand disgruntled people - but how many customers do they actually have?

People are still finding out. The email I got went to my spam folder. Friends I have with gear didnt know until I told them

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Muttley-99

Lyricist I

Sonos, we all hate you. And apparently you don't care about that. Eventually you will.

I was angry enough about bricking the CR100 - that turned me from loving your products and recommending them to everyone, to telling anyone who will listen to avoid them at all costs. My young sons could use those old controllers to play bedtime stories in their rooms. The only way to do that now would be to give them tablets or phones to use in their rooms, and that is out of the question. You have also effectively bricked several older iPods and iPhones which were being used as controllers, when new updates suddenly refused to run on them.

Now you are telling me that the 4 ZPs I have connected to B&W and Mission speakers are going the same way. I don't believe for a second that you will allow the legacy zones to be grouped with the ‘not obsolete quite yet’ zones. If I can't play music across all zones, then the system is no longer of any use to me. Why on earth would I ever consider swapping for newer Sonos equipment, when that will clearly be bricked in another year or two? I am building an extension which would require 3 new zones, but I would have to be a complete fool to consider another Sonos product at this point.

Maybe this attitude is acceptable in the US (though I doubt it), but forcing customers to throw away perfectly good equipment and buy more is completely against the current eco-considerations in the U.K. I am not an eco evangelist, but this is completely the wrong direction to take, and your customers will not back you.

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jarbre

Lyricist III

Sonos.

Your products should last for 100 years. Just like a record and record player or a compact disc and amp, etc. As long as there is electricity and WiFi around.

It is fine if the so called legacy products don't get smarter, but they need to continue to work as they do, with the services they currently support, including to support those services as they evolve. Maybe you can sell a little affordable at cost device, that people can add to their system, that can make that happen, since you apparently didn't think ahead when you designed the so called legacy products. This add on or dongle or whatever you want to make, to make it work should cost no more than 50$.

Also, it should be possible to get upgrades on the newer products, as promised, without affecting functionality with the so called legacy products. Basically meaning they should all still work together as one system, where you are able to control them together in the app, group them, etc.

This should be the announcement you plan for May, but should have given now, instead of this vague end of life announcement, leaving everybody confused, speculsting and full of distain for Sonos" business practices.

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JAV

Lyricist III

Patrick are you sure this is not a Money Grab… Look at Q3 EPS

Mmmmmm… Also all you Loyal Sonos customers it’s all about the stockholders… But shouldn’t the Stockholders be worried that Patrick Spence is running the show… Or did everyone forget and I quote from the Proxy statement.

“ Mr. Spence spent 14 years at Research In Motion Limited, a consumer electronics company and the developer of the BlackBerry device, in a variety of senior roles, including most recently serving as the SeniorVice President and the Managing Director of Global Sales and Regional Marketing from August 2011 until June 2012.”

Where’s blackberry today? Is Sonos starting down this same path?

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jgk1

Lyricist I

I do wonder how and why this is legal.

Setting aside the costs associated with being forced, at some point in the near future, to replace the equipment surely the environmental impact alone should make someone act.

Basically throwing away perfectly good equipment for no reason other than greed.

We won't be 'upgrading' we will use our existing systems until they stop then try a different system....but I suspect this will.be a common approach by many manufacturers, Apply, Samsung.....…

I wonder if Sonos will acknowledge this thread???

I also wonder how much damage this will do.

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LBDE

Lyricist I

-First bought a just released Symfonisk, like it very much😃

-Then last month a Beam, perfect TV sound!

-End of December: Found a second hand Connect Amp (still expensive, "few years old"), loved it with my Mini Pods.…

Now my Connect Amp is a legacy product, how disappointing......

Trading up is a farce, 30 % discount only at Sonos online... The new Amp €700, has become €100 more expensive this month. So online trading up discount is 15 % without a retailer in between...... That's pure profit for Sonos!!!

Sorry but I'm not going support this deplorable company ☹️

So, my plan: sending back the Beam (still possible 😁), selling the connect amp with some loss and only keeping the € 100 Ikea Symfonisk.

GOOD LUCK SONOS.......

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K

kjstrock

Lyricist II

Sonos no longer has a place in my home. Such a bad business decision.

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