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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Show previous replies

R

Royally_shafted

Lyricist III

SONOS ratings getting understandably trashed on major retail sites such as Amazon.

Share price down another 2% so far today.

Derisory response from the CEO to peoples concerns - didn’t really address anything.

On a positive note I’ve discovered there are some real alternatives to SONOS that I’d simply never considered before as I was completely bought into the SONOS product set. Most of them are much cheaper too … +++

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B

bonervz

Enthusiast II

SONOS ratings getting understandably trashed on major retail sites such as Amazon.

Share price down another 2% so far today.

Derisory response from the CEO to peoples concerns - didn’t really address anything.

On a positive note I’ve discovered there are some real alternatives to SONOS that I’d simply never considered before as I was completely bought into the SONOS product set. Most of them are much cheaper too … +++

Exactly, the bubble has burst.

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Sonos from leader to loser in 2020.

J

jmx

Lyricist III

and Patrick Spence

Stock symbol is SONO. It’s falling as is predictable. Would not buy that!

With so many competitors, one wonders about a strategy to cannabilize the current customer base rather than come up with a glide path approach, e.g., maintain the current feature set and integrate such that they continue to function in harmony with the release of new features for the “modern” products.

Potential issue: Perhaps there is something fundamentally wrong with their strategy to date with their software stack and its design to sit on their hardware?

Of our 16 SONOS products purchased in 2012, 9 are marked as Legacy. This represents roughly $4,000-$4,500 product only excluding installation and dedicated wiring. My previous stereos (retired but still functional) were used for roughly 20 or so years. My turntable (1973) still works like a charm.

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P

PabloPaul1

Lyricist I

I cannot believe this, how to destroy customer confidence in a single decision. I feel as many do, that my / our early adoption of Sonos has significantly contributed to the brands success, and now you are turning your back on us. We trusted this brand.

And now I have been informed today that even products I purchased new in 2013, I am told will not receive updates as it was “introduced” between 2005 band 2011, regardless of when I bought it.

Come on Sonos, really !!

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E

ewolkoff

Enthusiast II

Those are the two legacy versions of the Connect:Amp that I have seen. Notice both have a mute symbol on the button, but the Sonos logo on the first one is older. The newer Sonos logo was also later used with the play/pause button. That’s the modern version. So the modern one looks like this (sorry the photos keep rotating when I upload them):

And in 2015 both kinds were in the marketplace, without any description distinguishing the difference, so people like me bought a mix without knowledge or understanding of the difference……...until now. Does that seem right?? Same price, same name, different life and functionality…….

Have found on ebay an AMP with a serial starting 1412, indicating it was manufactured in 2014, but it has the new logo and play/pause button. Am assuming this is ‘modern’, but is that a gamble?

Hasn’t been confirmed by Sonos. Just my observations based on the units I have access to. But I would think that’s a modern unit. However one person here posted that they have a legacy with a play/pause button (not sure if that was true or not). So it’s a gamble. At a minimum, these should be worth a little below $195 on eBay - or the coupon value to trade up to an Amp.

Would be nice if Sonos could confirm though. That way people could know how to visually identify the legacy and non legacy units.

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C

Cchris

Enthusiast II

Thanks Danny. No I did not get an email telling me my Connect:Amp is a legacy product. I read the Sonos announcement which included the Connect: Amp in the legacy list. I’m confused - how do I tell?

This changes things. If you have a play/pause button on the front it’s a post-2015 connect:amp with 256mb of memory (8x the pre-2015 Connect:amp). You are still modern/will get software updates. They were selling these through 2018 or early 2019, so under their policy, you’ll be supported until at least 2023.

Not true. My connect Amps have a play pause button, but are all listed as legacy.

They look like this? With that symbol on the play/pause button? Are you in the US?

Am in the UK - Im sure I have a mix of those with a mute button and those with a play/pause button. Will check when I get home. All five listed as legacy, so Im looking at £somewhere in the region of £2,100 to keep my whole home working together (I also have anothr 12 devices mixture of play1 and play:one).

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I

IJN

Renowned Enthusiast I

Here’s an extract from today’s Evening Standard:

Spence said the company is working on a way for customers to split these systems so the speakers still work together but receive the appropriate updates for each device.

This reiterates my earlier speculation from a BBC article that it’s the legacy units’ inability to handle greater memory requirement updates which necessitates creating two populations of Sonos units - legacy and modern. The ES article goes further by saying that the speakers still work together but receive the appropriate updates for each device.

If the storm (hopefully in a tea cup) is ONLY about handling software updates and they can indeed work together after having been updated, I’m HAPPY again.

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

SONOS ratings getting understandably trashed on major retail sites such as Amazon.

Share price down another 2% so far today.

Derisory response from the CEO to peoples concerns - didn’t really address anything.

On a positive note I’ve discovered there are some real alternatives to SONOS that I’d simply never considered before as I was completely bought into the SONOS product set. Most of them are much cheaper too … +++

Yes, this has been an excellent way of encouraging me to look about too. I can fix this problem much cheaper by dropping Sonos than by upgrading. So like I say what fools gonna upgrade in this situation?

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J

jmx

Lyricist III

and Patrick Spence

Stock symbol is SONO. It’s falling as is predictable. Would not buy that!

With so many competitors, one wonders about a strategy to cannabilize the current customer base rather than come up with a glide path approach, e.g., maintain the current feature set and integrate such that they continue to function in harmony with the release of new features for the “modern” products.

Potential issue: Perhaps there is something fundamentally wrong with their strategy to date with their software stack and its design to sit on their hardware?

Of our 16 SONOS products purchased in 2012, 9 are marked as Legacy. This represents roughly $4,000-$4,500 product only excluding installation and dedicated wiring. My previous stereos (retired but still functional) were used for roughly 20 or so years. My turntable (1973) still works like a charm.

Oh, and Q1 earnings are expected Feb 5. Maybe these guys were going to miss their bonuses?

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robinm0

Enthusiast I

Another day, another thought. What’s really annoying is that, for me, Sonos’ kit has pretty well worked out of the box, with setting-up being straightforward. I know that hasn’t been the case for some.

The system has also worked well. It still does and that’s what makes the probable demise of my Play:3 & last remaining Play:1 in the near future, as they’re the oldest components, so disappointing.

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