Sold my entire position today.  Yeah, they say don’t trade based on emotions, but…………..

What did you think was Ryan meant when he said “Where possible, we will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes on the legacy devices where the computing hardware will allow. “    It sounds like you’re getting what you’re asking for.

"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."

I am facing a huge bill to upgrade my perfectly good "legacy" speakers that represent a considerable investment, but are soon to be useless. I'm now wondering how long before the rest of my system is deemed obsolete by Sonos.

There should be a commitment by Sonos to ensure that old Play units continue to function as they do today.  This just isn’t good enough.  There's no point in investing in this system anymore when the vendor can just turn off the switch when they choose. 

And what about the huge environmental cost of sending these old units to landfill.  Come on Sonos - what the f**k are you doing?

I was a loyal Sonos customer but not now.  I’m very angry, disappointed and you can shove your upgrade offer.

Really disappointed with Sonos over this announcement. Like many others I have been a fan of the system for many years and am frustrated that the many modern products in the house will be compromised by the only legacy (5) item in the house. I have been an advocate for your system and will certainly be reluctant to recommend it any more. My concern now is that you have found an easy way to force users to upgrade against their wish unless we abandon the system altogether. Fortunately there are many competitors now around to move over to. Really disgusted with such a callous and uncompromising announcement. A fan no more!!

Edit: did not read the annoucement properly

There are many options beyond Alexa and such… even Raspberry Pi and similar DIY solutions are getting more and more capable. Wiring, if planning for longevity is likely still the best solution, but the field is ever-changing. All those are roads I likely would have gone down if it weren't that I saw something more powerful in Sonos (particularly at the time!)… 

The problem is that, just like any hi-fi system purchased as a premium investment, Sonos was sold as such, and truly, had I known the long-term ramifications of the choice I made at the time, I well may not have… very likely would not have.
And that is the bottom-line sentiment of hundreds of folks in the past 24 hours.

Sonos stock is taking a well deserved Hit… Sell Sell Sell…  too bad…  just like their legacy products, all good things come to an end…  

The reason given for end of life is that my existing devices “do not have enough memory or processing power to sustain future innovation”.

That may be correct for some new features.  I am ok with this and fully expect not to get new features. 

However, it is absolute rubbish regarding supporting the existing feature set that my devices have. The majority of changes will be keeping up with any interface changes that third party services like Spotify may make.  These are extremely unlikely to require any more memory or processing power than my device have. In fact, it is an almost certainty that no changes will be made that my devices cant handle.  

The only reason SONOS are doing this is for cost of maintaining the software.  There is no technical reasons whatsoever.   It is to protect the bottom line. 

As an owner of a software company myself, I know maintenance costs. Customers cannot expect support for free forever.  I would consider paying an annual maintenance fee for the small amount of work to maintain existing features that would be required over a year.  Why is that not an option?

I’ve asked the further question (no response) which is will future products be able to be downgraded to work with legacy system? While they are saying that there will be a way to add new products to a “legacy” network I want someone to come out and clarify that there will be a way to downgrade the firmware to a version that the new component may have never been designed for. Seems like a complicated proposition, especially since it’s not clear that all systems will be frozen at the same version. 

We have just realised the Sonos 1 speakers we own are going to become obsolete & so I felt we had to add our voice. We are in disbelief and so disappointed. We do not have the money to replace. These were investments for us at a time we could have spent the money on our young family but chose to buy these to last into the long term future. We did not realise that they are in effect disposable items. We use them everyday and Its hard to imagine just throwing them away?  I didn’t buy them to landfill these after a few years. This is terrible for the environment. Shame on Sonos. 

Legacy mode

Oh dear.

This is a Ratneresque move that is going to rapidly backfire. As others have said, Sonos have in effect just announced that their products are disposable.

That’s absolutely fine, so here’s what I’m going to do: eBay my entire Sonos 5.1 system this weekend and never, ever purchase another piece of Sonos equipment.

I would urge everyone to boycott Sonos until this nonsensical decision has been publicly reversed.

As it stands, you are alienating loyal customers from the kind of socio-economic categories that companies yearn for.

But hey, we all know it’s about the money so the only way Sonos is going to listen is through taking a financial hit.

WAKE UP CEO before you destroy your well-deserved brand and turn it into a ‘legacy brand’ - just like our speakers.

Not if interoperability goes out the window and silo’ing is necessary in this scenario.
If the above is true it will indeed prevent many from selling off their systems, continuing on as-is today, but it will most assuredly prevent the vast majority from adding modern unit sold at a premium into their same ecosystem in the future. That seems clear.

It is the ecosystem that purchasers bought into first and foremost as presented by Sonos, and it is the loss of that ecosystem that is at stake. Again, if a system can indeed be frozen in its current state and simply receive maintenance updates, that will dry the eyes of many, but it will not entice any to invest further.

Maybe it’s about commitment, being forthright and direct.  “Where Possible” and “might not” do not provide the warm fuzzies for continued investment into the products, not for me.  It’s hard to stand on the sidelines and hope the Company does what’s best in the interest of their Customers.  if nothing else, this event was poorly executed and communicated.  Or it was planned, maybe they want to take the stock back private by driving it down.  

Thankyou Sonos, I’ve got 1x connect Amp, 3 x connects and a sub woofer. 
 

All of these ‘ dinosaurs’ will be left in the lurch after May and eventually die. That’s a fitting thankyou from Sonos for the financial support from people like myself who have purchased £1,500.00,s worth of Sonos equipment. In effect we have helped shape your company. Without the early purchases you wouldn’t be where you are now. Suffice to say I shall not be supporting you in the future. It does work both ways you know. I’ll be looking for a new supplier. Well done ! 

One thought that just came to mind. As long as you can group an AirPlay Sonos speaker with these legacy products, you should always be able to use any music program through iOS to play whatever you need to, no? So even if you can’t use the Sonos controller to play Spotify (because they change their API), you could still use your iPhone and just group the rooms. 

The bold bit of this ^ post is astonishing

The company ought to look at the quote given earlier (under the following heading), to give an indication of where this debacle seems to be heading...

If we are not able to maintain and enhance the value and reputation of our brand, or if our reputation is otherwise harmed, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

Our continued success depends on our reputation for providing high-quality products and consumer experiences, and the “Sonos” name is critical to preserving and expanding our business. Our
brand and reputation are dependent on a number of factors, including our marketing efforts, product quality, and trademark protection efforts, each of which requires significant expenditures.
The value of our brand could also be severely damaged by isolated incidents, which may be outside of our control…..

….Any damage to our brand or reputation may adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

https://s22.q4cdn.com/672173472/files/doc_financials/2019/q4/52d86c5b-248f-4939-aa85-1489c1828e7f.pdf#page=17

I feel some sympathy for RyanS though, being left to deal with this as he obviously cares about the brand & the product & is incredibly helpful whenever I’ve had dealings with him, but on the face of things he’s being put in an impossible situation not of his making...

Dear Sonos,

I am like so many, still very upset over yesterday’s press release. I feel cheated, betrayed, sold a lie. I will never invest in another "expensive" smartish audio device without a clear TTL laid out, in writing, this sets a precedent never before seen in the audio industry. Buyer beware. 
Are all expensive audio speakers destined for the landfill and only going to last 2 years like today’s phones are, which I might add is the single biggest ripoff/scam in history.
There are many posts comparing SONOS to phones and computers.... Well, here is my comparison, I am still using my 2010 iphone 5, and my Lenovo Thinkpad w520 workstation from 2011, same year I got my first SONOS, and my Lenovo Thinkpad is still working just fine and guess what, Microsoft and Linux have NO issues continuing support for it. It will run even if it doesn't have the latest techno fab installed. So take that.
This is an embarrassment and is total BULL SHITE!

....so in a nutshell sonos are now a speaker rental company - £xxx every 5 years.…

wish i knew this when sinking £1.5k on their average 5.1 set up.

definitely getting my own 5.1 system (Yamaha av / wharfale dx2 'dumb' speakers) this year. 

Dropping support of a product means that all the companies products disposable?  Do you feel the same way about Apple, Google, Microsoft, and all of the products they’ve ended support for over the years?

Not saying you can’t be angry or it’s not justified, just not following how ending support results in disposable, unless disposable applies to every computer related product ever made.

What does that mean?

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.

Well, May is a bit late isn’t it if we’re being encouraged to make decision about our kit now? This is a crucial option not mentioned yesterday and would be a viable one for me - although a frustrating one as it negates one of the key positive attributes of Sonos which is a home wide network. Will it mean a separate app interface for that one speaker and juggling app when moving between rooms?

As many people I’ve read comment from today, I was an early adopter, strong advocate, happy Beta tester who was willing to make a considerable financial outlay on a product that is, let’s be honest, not cheap but a quality sound. I expected it to last. But I look now at my other kit and wonder how long that has got before there’s more financial outlay and whether there is any point in investing further.

I don’t think connection via Ethernet will make any difference because we rely on their software.  I think most people use apps on mobile devices to operate their Sonos system.  At some in the future this will cease to work with older speakers.  Of course I don’t know that for sure, it’s just what I think will happen.  It will probably always work on Mac/PC because older versions of the software are available. 

I’m sure we’ll see many workaround as months and years go by. As has been mentioned a number of times, Sonos should simply allow the legacy devices to be released entirely, fork the codebase to an open source one and release it into the wild. These legacy system would continue on in perpetuity in that case. Why won’t Sonos go down that road (in my estimation)? Because it will dissuade users with legacy devices from buying modern replacements from Sonos.

Just making sure I post in angry thread 2.0. This is still BS, and I’m still done with this platform. 

Sorry I meant speaker wire (conventional speakers).   Not Ethernet. 

Also a good idea.  And agree - that’s likely the reason they won’t do it.  That and IP concerns.