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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dougtaylor69

Contributor I

Absolute garbage policy. I have $2,500 in Sonos products and will immediately start looking for another product from a company that has more sense. I read this email yesterday and ordered a replacement Play 5 for the one that appeared would completely stop working in May. It will be immediately returned. I’m far beyond disappointed.

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dipp0

Trending Lyricist I

Sonos,

Obviously the “end of support” announcement upset a lot of people, and it is refreshing to hear you’ll continue to support legacy equipment for as long as possible. That said, it is disgusting that your “upgrade program” essentially means sending the old devices to the dump. Perhaps you weren’t forward thinking enough to realize the “computer” part of the device would eventually become obsolete when you initially introduced the product. (shame on you if you did) But knowing this is going to happen with all future products, it would be nice for the environment if you’d consider a way to upgrade the processor and memory, saving the speakers, amplifiers, and chassis from further contributing to the global garbage crisis.

Thanks for listening,

Terry

Good point. And why not take this a bit further and make and sell replacement motherboards with better CPU and memory for old units. That would satisfy a lot of people, we can all help the environment and you can make some money.

If you ask me this is what you should have done from the start. No end of life, no waste.

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Allen Stern

Contributor I

This is weak. And your discount amount for the upgrade is just a joke. I’ll just plow along with my current equipment.

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augustwest

Enthusiast II

Thank you that someone at Sonos had the good sense to correct this. That was an incredibly stupid communications/strategy blunder which I am sure was driven by the need to keep quarterly numbers up for wall street.

Read it again - he hasn't corrected anything - he has just reiterated what has already been said.

YUP: Just a more legal wording.

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highpks

Lyricist III

“Your iPhone 4 will continue to work as before, but it can only /call/FaceTime/Message/txt/…/ other iPhone 4’s”

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BoboBoca

Lyricist I

Just received a very nice letter form the CEO Patrick Spence …

Hey Patrick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me and prob many others others be clear….

We purchased and built on a whole home system that work together not in 2 systems old and new just one system that works.

This is a very simple concept and all of us who have spent a heck of a lot of money supporting your New and Legacy company are owed some real thought before kicking us to the side of the road.

Also you did not consider the secondary and used market in your upgrade plans and a way to protect them from deactivated units being sold and as you have so nicely put it legacy devices being dumped to non educated buyers and being stuck with paper weights.

CEO Patrick Spence you have been in the saddle for some time 2012 but i believe you truly have missed the boat as far as who you customers really are and why they use your product to begin with. wake up the gang is shopping for a better solution and it will not be sonos.

Regards your Sonos Customers

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diable

Lyricist I

Is this where Sonos have their Gerald Ratner moment as with this announcement I have lost all trust in the company and will not be recommending or purchasing any more of their products.

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Witthaus

Trending Lyricist I

Here’s a question, what if you gave in to Sonos and voluntarily bricked your device thinking it was going to die? Now they say use a split system. Will the people who voluntarily bricked their units be able to “reactivate” them if the split system is good enough for them?

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Wifi_Music

Contributor I

Like a lot of people here I have a number of Sonos devices in my house. I have put some friends and family onto Sonos systems too. I am moving house shortly and looking for more devices for my new house. I just cant justify investing in Sonos equipment knowing my whole system is only as good as the oldest device and a speaker can be shut off on the whim of the company.

I cant buy any more Sonos speakers and I will be warning off anyone else I can. This is just a cynical planned obsolescence move on perfectly good equipment.

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gdthompson

Lyricist I

Why would I buy your product again if your just going to pull this again?

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