End of Software Support - Clarifications

https://www.slashgear.com/sonos-nightmare-was-inevitable-24607638/

This points to the major problem the whole Sonos community faces, whether or not we have legacy items.

The last email from the company openly admits that they only aim to support products for five years. Who is going to buy their systems knowing that? If sales fall off a cliff, they make no profit. No profit leads to bankruptcy. Then we will all lose support and updates because no company will be theee to provide. 
 

Ratners went bust…..

I think this is the first time I see that someone say that the ability to add new components to a legacy network will be for “Sonos products currently available for sale”.

As I read it it means that this is only buying a bit of time until new products are introduced. Could that begin to happen in May?

How could anyone GUARANTEE that all unknown future products could be added to legacy systems? It doesn't mean that they definitely won't be. 

Some people are clearly determined to put the worst possible interpretation on everything Sonos says. 

Your current action is-

Holding existing customers systems for ransom who have from one to many legacy items and expecting them to just cough up £100's if not £1000's.  A vield threat to let your own product break and ruin both new and old alike in one swoop. 

Then a sort of half hearted apology about we communicated this wrong ,a restating of previous information and rediculous offer of splitting of legacy components that ruins interoperability which is the main selling point of the system.

Is the person making these decisions out to ruin the company or on drugs?

This action is putting current and prospective new customers who own  no legacy items on notice that they are on the same time line awaiting the ransom note to arrive or expect them to become useless as they won't be able to form a part of the system as they will be split off.

Do you really expect existing and prospective customers  buy into this?

Have you been asleep the last few years?

You are no longer the only player in this market.There are now many other options which are cheaper and higher spec not to mention the nasty and  unethical way you're conducting business.

Did you really think you could get away with this and prosper?

Funny how this is the first I have ever heard anything about 5 years support limit. It was never mentioned  when I was researching and paying  Sonos my hard earned money for their premium products.

As many have said this is a Ratner moment and the damage could be too big to recover from.

Prospective and old customers trust in the brand is now gone.

Sonos,well done on committing suicide.

I can see the company going bust in very short order which no one Including us,your customers will benefit from.

R.I.P Sonos 2020

We who jumped onboard and traded up have now been mislead following these backtrack statements.

The 30 percent discount doesn't come into this. In fact high street prices already have a significant saving on the Sonos retail price so it's hardly been a brilliant deal.

99 percent of the people on this forum will be Sonos supporters/fanatics even.

Look how many are seriously not happy.

Again Sonos need to do something to sort this. In my instance you've had my money and really don't give toss about my old Play 5 that I traded up  So let me keep it and revoke the 21 day brick as a gesture of goodwill!!

I agree that I didn’t believe they could guarantee this given the new trajectory, this is why I’ve been asking the question. This changes the definition of a “modern” component in my mind. I now understand that “modern” does not include future products.

As I assume that your comment was aimed at me, I’m not trying to put the worst possible interpretation on what is said. I’m trying to fully understand what is being communicated and what is clear to me is that the website is no longer accurate.

Here are current examples of what I was told I was buying:

https://www.sonos.com/en-ca/listen-your-way

Create your perfect sound system.

Everything works together, and Sonos works with all your favourite services so you can listen to what you want, where you want, how you want.

Customize your system

Start with one speaker and easily add more later. Stereo pair speakers in the same room for bolder, richer sound. Connect Sub to Playbar, Playbase, or Beam for deeper bass, then add a pair of rear surrounds for immersive surround sound. Hook up your turntable to Play:5 (doesn’t specify Gen 2) or Amp to stream vinyl all around your home.

Listen in any room

All Sonos speakers and components connect over WiFi so you can build the system you want. Put on a podcast in the bedroom while someone else watches TV in the living room, or group all your speakers to play music in sync.

I don’t, with respect, think that’s the point. 

Sonos themselves have retired equipment over the years; CR100 & 200 controllers, for example. The problems for them now are that their owner base is large, there is much more competition, their changes to the product range have been driven by a perceived need to provide functionality that much of that base either don’t want or use at the expense of technical improvements, they are now a listed company with investors to placate, sales to drive up, costs to drive down & their marketing department has displayed grade A incompetence with its advertising strategy. 

A de-facto guarantee has been offered by promising that old hardware will work with their new offerings; that is still the case in current advertisements. Now the company has revealed that it doesn’t have much of a plan for when that promise can no longer be fulfilled technically, although I would dispute that this is the case; thin clients, an inexpensive piece of hardware, for example. Instead, a clunky solution of splitting systems is touted; the promise remains unfulfilled. 

No-one should be surprised at the reaction, especially after the abysmal way in which the process has been handled.

I understand your feelings and what you’re trying to say. But there’s only so much that I can say, so I’m going to generally stick to things I can properly answer in a thread like this.

I have mostly Play:1s and Play: 3s in my system. I suspect they’ll be next to be bricked.