Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
4256 replies
270215 views
Translate All

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

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

D

Daniel88

Avid Contributor I

Goodbye sonos hello Bose

also hang that CEO

Translate

pwt

Virtuoso

They have 9m devices (not customers)

37% of sales come from existing customers. My guess is that those customers enthuse about the product and drive more sales.

I am surprised the share price has not tanked.

Yeah and god only knows how many of the 63% of new costumer sales is from word of mouth from the 37%

I bet that if they dont reverse this decision, in 10 years they will be in the same business school books as Nokia and others on “how NOT to do”.

It’ll be interesting to see the Sonos Net Promoter score in the coming months.

Translate

4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300

D

DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

Just checked the “yellow pages” of Denmark (dba.dk)

15 Play 5’s has been put on sale there in the period from the email and to today.

So 15 potential sales to 15 potential buyers that may be unaware that the unit’s are obsolete in 4 months.

Just in the last days.

Atleast one of them is a guy that states that he is selling all of his equipment (2 Play 5, 1 play 3 and a connect amp) because he is going to buy a different system.

I would really hate to be the poor guy,buying that setup, only to find that the Play 3 is the only one that will be upgraded.

But on the other hand, i fully understand a guy that needs to replace 3 of 4 units at a high cost, to just cut his losses and try to get rid of the paperweights before they die completely.

Translate

A

anjrober

Enthusiast II

50 pages...now they cut it off….

Translate

chickentender

My main concern, and I apologize if it’s already been asked - how much longer until the sub and playbar are also killed off? I believe they’ve been out since 2012, so can we expect them to disappear in 2022?

@macallan18, our commitment is to support products with software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting for longer. You can still purchase from us the same Sub and Playbar that were introduced a while back. And even if they do move to legacy at some point in the distance, they’ll continue working as they currently do, but without software updates. Even if software requirements move beyond their hardware capabilites, they’ll keep on playing your TV input until the hardware breaks.

Ryan - can you give any indication regarding which of the main streaming services Sonos has the most favorable working relationship with, e.g. those that are least likely to be affected or whose development cycles are most (oddly) the *slowest*?

Translate

P

patbla

Enthusiast II

My main concern, and I apologize if it’s already been asked - how much longer until the sub and playbar are also killed off? I believe they’ve been out since 2012, so can we expect them to disappear in 2022?

@macallan18, our commitment is to support products with software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting for longer. You can still purchase from us the same Sub and Playbar that were introduced a while back. And even if they do move to legacy at some point in the distance, they’ll continue working as they currently do, but without software updates. Even if software requirements move beyond their hardware capabilites, they’ll keep on playing your TV input until the hardware breaks.

Ryan: you only started to sell the new Amp 2 years ago. While some of the internals may have changed over time (which was not transparent to customers) you were still selling the now legacy Amp (at least from a customer point of view) less than 5 years ago and clearly some of the commentors have purchased old inventories in that time.

Will you start to have a Best Before date on new components?

Translate

U

UKUser

Enthusiast I

The flood has started… too late to sell your soon to be trashed Sonos stuff. Screen shot from Gumtree. I was actually there looking to buy some old amps to hook up an alternative streming device into and satrted seeing Sonos components, so I did a quick search for Sonos UK and there are tons of them, I bet few if any people mention their very limited lifespan.

Beware - as someone noted, units can be deactivated to give the trade-in discount against new items, but continue to work for a few days potentially allowing the unscrupulous to sell them on.

Translate

P

PaulYork

Enthusiast I

the biggest kicker here is that if you wish to keep your system as a "whole home" single system - as it was sold, or also now also known as legacy - you won't be able to buy another Sonos product ever again.

At some point, factory bought Sonos units will have software on older than our "frozen" systems and any new hardware just won't work with the legacy stuff. No whole home audio system anymore...

Without any further information that is what these announcements are currently saying.

Or in other words, if you have old kit that works and you don't want to upgrade it you're no longer welcome as a customer!

What utter b......s and abject marketing failure. Kind of reminds me about that Ratners jewelry chap and we all know what happened there!

Translate

S

Stuart_17

Enthusiast II

My timeline of emotions with regard to Sonos:

2012 - Monday 20th January 2020 - Love. I freakin’ loved all my kit, bought loads and sang from the roof tops how good it was. Me and Sonos up a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

Tuesday 21st January - Shock - I can’t believe the email I’ve just received. Wtf!

Wednesday 22nd January - Mild depression. After totaling how much money I’ve spent and how I am going to tell my wife.

Thursday 23rd January - HATE. No reply from Mr Spence to my email and no company announcement that they are even considering rethinking. You deserve to fail as a company IMHO.

Translate

U

UKUser

Enthusiast I

Sonos article in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/23/sonos-to-deny-software-updates-to-owners-of-older-equipment

A couple of striking extracts:

‘A freeze on software updates will initially have little effect, but over time it will eventually prevent the speakers from working at all, “particularly as partners evolve their technology”, Sonos said.’

and

‘Sonos did not reply to requests for comment from the Guardian.’

Translate

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community