Computer based systems? Sonos is selling speakers.
Yes, computer-based speakers. Every one has a Linux computer inside.
In your logic its totally ok that if you buy a new car it will not work after few years.
There is actually multiple different "computers" inside of new cars but no one will say that okay after May it might stop working.. Dont drive very far away from your home.
Its totally ok that you will not get all the latest thing to your car but its not okay that if it doesnt work at all. Same thing with the speakers.
Sonos isn’t saying the speakers will stop working, either. Please read the first post of this thread...
That’s exactly what they are saying - maybe not straight away, but in time as streaming services update their software the speakers won’t be updated to make them compatible.
I will repeat my comments from yesterday (in the now closed thread) - please post reviews on Bestbuy.com, target.com etc etc. Clearly thousands of very loyal customers are extremely angry about this based on all the comments during the last days. Let’s take our responsibility and let’s inform new potential buyers of the risk they take when they invest in the Sonos platform. People need to know this before they buy; for the US especially Bestbuy is a great website to create some visibility for new potential buyers. We should not allow this to happen to them!! Just posted one on BestBuy and one on the Consumer Reports site. Please take a couple of minutes to increase visibility.
And you are complaining and suing because someone is treating you wrong. Pass it on brother!
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/technology/sonos-sues-google.html
I won’t be personally affected by this most recent EOL announcement, but it does stand to reason that I (and countless others) are likely wondering if it’s only a matter of time before the One, Beam, Sub, etc will be obsolete.
For Sonos’ sake, I hope not.
This is a shocking decision. I've been with Sonos for 12 years s but it's time to move on. As well as emailing the CEO to log our frustration at patrick.spence@sonos.com we can use this forum for a better purpose. If we want to move from Sonos to save this happening to us again, what's the best system to buy now? Yamaha, Bose, someone else? Any opinions? Let's plan our move from this company that doesn't care about us.
Unbelievable. Nice way to ruin your brand overnight. My 1972 Sansui receiver plays perfectly 48 years later. My 5 year old Sonos system that cost 10x will soon be obsolete and need replacement. What a ripoff.
In addition, I play music stored on my iPhone regularly - I paid thousands of dollars for them on iTunes. That is why I bought Sonos. Now my older products will no longer do that. And if I read this correctly, we can’t just buy one new play 5 gen 2 to solve the problem.
Sounds like I need a whole new system. The 30 percent upgrade discount is offensive.
Thanks for making the decision to buy a Bluetooth adapter for my quality older system an easy one. I may keep my existing system but rest assured I won’t ever buy another Sonos product and I will think hard about shorting your stock.
Stock is dropping fast. now down 2.26%.
What a seriously bonehead move Sonos
It’s not just angering your loyal - and previously vocally supportive - customer base, but also shooting your reputation - and future product sales - squarely in the foot in one ill-advised fell swoop.
It’s clear you’re signaling that continuing to buy your products means we’ll just have to replace them the next time you decide to make a move like this? And why would anyone do that?
On a lighter note, there’s no doubt if you go through with this “planned obsolescence,” it’s going to make an outstanding MBA case study of exceptionally poor business decisions once business tanks and the company suffers. Suddenly a lot of other legendarily bad business decisions like the Edsel and New Coke will look so much better in comparison to your move. I just hate that like your customers, your workforce also has to suffer the consequences of this move.
Sounds like the kind of move companies make when the people who built the company have been pushed out, and the new crowd wants a “quick hit” impact to boost their own careers and fortunes (hey, they won’t be in their jobs three years from now, right?).
And unfortunately as others have pointed out, this makes other Wi-Fi based products look circumspect. Does it make me want to buy another Ring camera or a SimpliSafe alarm? Actually it makes me not want to. So your decision is likely to ripple far beyond Sonos.
Like others I’m also heavily invested in Sonos products: PlayBar, 4 1s, 2 3s, 2 Subs, Beam, Connect, Boost (had to dump the Bridge because of a similar move), and the soon-to-be obsolete 5. Also like others if you continue down this path, not only will I never purchase another Sonos product, I will no longer recommend your system to others (as I have countless times in the past), and I will actively move away from your system ASAP. And BTW my now-deceased wife gave me that 5, so I’m actually a bit emotionally attached to it.
BTW my 30+ year old B&W speakers and NAD electronics still sound awesome! Right now their source is a Connect feeding a Cambridge Audio DAC. But, hey, after this I looked into how I had that rigged: the volume control on the Cambridge works, the Wi-Fi DAC still works with Spotify and Tidal, and the system actually sounds better without the Connect.
Please reconsider.
So as you gave £100 when you stopped supporting the CR100 are you going to give £100 per legacy unit. I have 5 units that will become legacy and some of them only bought a few years ago. I have had Sonos since 2009, I certainly won't be buying anymore, couldn't even provide Dolby DTS on the Premium product PLAYBAR
Bumping the trade-in discount to 50% would go a LONG way towards making this acceptable.
My gut instinct is that Sonos has been digging themselves in a proverbial software hole for years by making all devices in a system run the same version. I bet that some of the coders there have been saying this for years and were ignored by management. Now the time has come that some products will be legacy soon but the software would have to be re-written completely in order to accommodate both legacy and newer products at the same time. It’s a mess that’s been in the making for years, and there’s no easy solution. My advice is to start hiring some top notch programmers to figure it out.
To date i’ve almost been a sonos product evangelist, i’ve happily recommended it to family and friends, many of whom have gone on to buy sonos products. This announcement has made me do a complete u-turn; i’ll never buy another sonos product and will warn others from doing so. Really poor form.
An utter disgrace. Another lost customer. You want everyone to have to buy new products every 5 years? Comical. You don’t advertise that all products have a 5 year useful lifespan on your website but now suggest that’s normal. Does Patrick Spence realise the size of this mistake?
Sonos it's like you’re not even listening. You locked the previous thread because you thought people didn't understand but the majority of us do understand. Its Sonos that doesn't understand.
Very disappointed. You should be working on a path for people to keep their legacy products updated. Either by creating a new network connected legacy compute device to pick up the slack or making your software flexible enough to work with legacy and new hardware in the same cluster.
Invest in a solution, your customers want one.
I don't think you guys have until May. You need to get ahead of this now while people still care. In May people will have moved on.
Absolutely right. The patient (Sonos) is heavily bleeding at the moment. If you want to stop it you really should do something. The only thing i've seen so far is that they have been trying to hide negative feedback. Not very good way to handle the situation. Action and apologies are needed.
Btw.. Stock price is still going down. At the moment 14.46.. Both sides of head are bleeding. Customers and owners.
Someone will have to find a new job soon. Can you feel the heat?
As other have mention cheap input devices into dumb hifi is the way forward I’m currently researching what I’ll be replacing Sonos with because I vow I will never buy another Sonos product, Friday I was buying a second lot of beam, sub and 2 ones for our other lounge as a 5.1 system similar to what we have in the main one now, it’ll be Yamaha I think so Sonos you’ve already cost yourselves oh and my new purchase I’ll today have covered the costs by shorting your stock #boycottsonos #sonosfail really paid off for me ha ha ha you guys can keep your 30% you’ve just paid me to go to a competitor and bad mouth you to anyone who’ll listen. I’ve heard ratner is astounded somebody has copied him
Bumping the trade-in discount to 50% would go a LONG way towards making this acceptable.
My gut instinct is that Sonos has been digging themselves in a proverbial software hole for years by making all devices in a system run the same version. I bet that some of the coders there have been saying this for years and were ignored by management. Now the time has come that some products will be legacy soon but the software would have to be re-written completely in order to accommodate both legacy and newer products at the same time. It’s a mess that’s been in the making for years, and there’s no easy solution. My advice is to start hiring some top notch programmers to figure it out.
Definition of how NOT to design and code software and interfaces
In previous posts many have looked to alternatives such as Bluesound, or more modular approaches involving Chromecast/Echo type feed/grouping devices as well as DIY solutions.
I just came across something that encompasses all of the above, namely “Arylic”, and I think many here will want to have a look:
Truly impressive. I can’t say I’m wild about the chinese origins, but that is becoming as par for the course as subscription-based services are, and for the price and versatility, it’s at least worth a look, particularly considering the DIY aspect (meaning you can assemble the system yourself if you choose to, offering quite a bit of peace-of-mind in that regard, knowing precisely what is in side each and every piece of hardware you are deploying into your home.)
Interesting at the very least.
Sonos it's like you’re not even listening. You locked the previous thread because you thought people didn't understand but the majority of us do understand. Its Sonos that doesn't understand.
Very disappointed. You should be working on a path for people to keep their legacy products updated. Either by creating a new network connected legacy compute device to pick up the slack or making your software flexible enough to work with legacy and new hardware.
Invest in a solution, your customers want one.
I understood perfectly what Sonos was doing to me… and it isn’t very nice…
@Ryan S : It’s clear that 30% off new kit isn’t good enough. It’s bad for the environment and it’s still expensive, plus how long will that “premium” product be supported? In the other thread that was locked it was mooted that replacing the motherboard/pcb inside the existing speakers would be a good alternative upgrade path. It would enable Sonos to responsibly recycle the old components and allow Sonos engineers to upgrade existing speakers. This would produce less waste and also would be a cheaper upgrade path for customers too. I realise that electronics are a certain size and specification, but I believe this would be achievable. Sonos appears to be happy to burn bridges with existing customers, but there are better alternatives if Sonos will consider them.
You know you can solve this issue to the benefit of everyone. IT developers, if given the right goal will come up with a solution. Suggest you do not be so stubborn as to ignore all options. Shareholders will take a dim view of the leadership that reduced their investment value. The resellers of the world will not be channel partners into the future (COSTCO for example) unless they can sell you at a lost leader discount. Ah well there is always Walmart.
One modest proposal.
While I understand the rationale behind your needs to stop supporting the old hardware with software updates I think that there could be a better solution, more satisfactory for us (the users) and you (Sonos).
My proposal is to create a simple device, as powerful as need (let’s call it THE DEVICE), that can compensate the lack of “power” of the Legacy devices. The trick is to create a new software for legacy Sonos hardware that can let them act as dumb devices controlled 100% from THE DEVICE.
I think something similar to the old Sonos Bridge that can create a sub-network inside the Sonos System. Something like that:
|SONOS ECOSYSTEM| -->|THE DEVICE|-->|LEGACY SONOS|
In my opinion you could sell this product to a symbolic price (just to cover the costs of implementation), for example 50 Euros / device .
Of course you are going to loose the extra revenue from users that are interested in renewal of their legacy hardware but you will obtain a couple of benefits that, for me, overcome that minus:
- You are going to make happy the older users – the one that supported Sonos when it was in its early phase;
- You are going to communicate the market that you are not going to leave your old hardware behind, but you are going to to everything in your possibility to let your system a last long device. (you are going to promise something that differentiate a lot from your competitors);
Keep in mind, regarding the second one, that you should try to communicate trust in this moment.
Everybody (at least in this chat) is in doubt about buying a new Sonos piece. It may be the next Legacy device!
Thanks for your consideration
Ab.
Just like so many people I am dismayed at this total lack of respect for your customers Sonos. Also like so many I have invested in thousands of pounds worth of Sonos equipment over the last few years. This feels like two things. One - A massive kick in the b**ls and Two - A marketing ploy to try and get loyal customers to ‘upgrade’ and thus boost sales! I can’t afford to spend money replacing my Connect and the Denon unit it connects will thus become redundant. Your products are far from cheap and I for one refuse to have anything else to do with this brand if this policy is implemented. For the record I have 11 Sonos products in my home. I now feel betrayed and furious that in the current climate you are forcing people to throw out perfectly good equipment! Get real, and do it quickly!
What HiFi review of multi room systems recommends Audio Pro, Bluesound, Denon and Bose.
https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/streaming/best-multi-room-systems
Any other thoughts?
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.
Very bad move! I should be able to choose to upgrade/update my equipment. I am ok with not being able to update any further but I am not ok if my equipment will stop working at some point.
Well, that’s me never buying (leasing) one of your products again. Shame on you!
