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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Guy_19

Enthusiast II

From what i have seen, the electronics inside the IKEA Symfonisk is exactly the same as inside the Play 1, with the only difference being that the Symfonisk has 256Mbyte instead of 64Mbyte

The Symfonisk is essentially identical to a play 1 inside, apparently.

Yes, the Symfonisk is the same PCB but with added ram and rom

Should be an easy retrofit when the Play 1 is obsoleted in a couple of years….If they have not changed the PCB in the Symfonisk or stopped selling it.

If you think about a Symfonisk is more functional than a play 1.. when Sonos brick your Symfonisk in a few years you can at least continue to use it as a shelf.

You do know that they put a kill switch on the rear bracket don’t you? When Spence approves a particular software update, it falls off the wall… Though he may not be around to approve it.

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7 rooms: One SL Stereo Pair, One SL x 2, Move, Play:5 Gen2 & Port into Arcam AVR with AE floorstanders, Port into Denon microsystem.

C

cruxto

Lyricist I

To make things worse, with is PR disaster blowing up, the £1000’s invested in Sonos equipment will be worthless on the second-hand market as it is obsolete and nobody will want it, so we are completely trapped.

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IJN

Renowned Enthusiast I

Think Sonos have heard the customers speak - Nice letter from Patrick Spence - let’s see what happens now .

Letter from Spence says nothing new - reading through these threads there are several key questions raised by many ; Sonos need to read through these the many posts and collate a list of key concerns and provide answers as appropriate , ranging from Yes to Possibly/ working on it to definitely No… that way users can start to take informed decisions and the uncertainty will start to recede for both users (be able to work out what to do with systems) and Sonos (able to estimate impact/ development needs to resolve/ ignore the issues raised). Continued silence can only cause more harm than necessary for parties on both sides of the divide. Many concern is that Sonos, a fragile, recently floated business, will not survive and will either go under or be swallowed up by the likes of Apple/Google as its rare price continues to slide as sales fall significantly short of market expectations. I’m a professional M&A adviser and have seen similar scenarios many times in which hitherto successful companies make one big mistake and don’t take appropriate corrective action sufficiently quickly. Damage limitation is key...

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IJN

Renowned Enthusiast I

From what i have seen, the electronics inside the IKEA Symfonisk is exactly the same as inside the Play 1, with the only difference being that the Symfonisk has 256Mbyte instead of 64Mbyte

The Symfonisk is essentially identical to a play 1 inside, apparently.

Yes, the Symfonisk is the same PCB but with added ram and rom

Should be an easy retrofit when the Play 1 is obsoleted in a couple of years….If they have not changed the PCB in the Symfonisk or stopped selling it.

If you think about a Symfonisk is more functional than a play 1.. when Sonos brick your Symfonisk in a few years you can at least continue to use it as a shelf.

You do know that they put a kill switch on the rear bracket don’t you? When Spence approves a particular software update, it falls off the wall… Though he may not be around to approve it.

But who wants the aesthetically challenged IKEA products?

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andy_120

Enthusiast II

... For some of us who want to just purchase a few newer Connect or Connect Amps so we can get past this May shut-out/forced obsolesce/split system issue, There may be some economical options out there instead of the reduced functionality (and stupid expense) of the Amp and Port or the environmental disaster of the “trade-in” program. Of course Sonos isn’t clear about how much longer their so-called (Modern) units will be supported either...

@kassey22000, I know it’s buried several times in the pages of this thread and others, but we’ve committed to supporting our products with updates for at least five years after they’re no longer sold by us, after they’ve been discontinued. And as you all know, we have a track record of doing so for much longer than that. The 2015 Connect and Connect:Amps are only recently no longer sold, or in some cases still available at very limited stock levels. So you’re looking at at least five years worth of updates from when they were discontinued.

I'm sorry Ryan, but this was not what I was told when I brought into the sonos concept. It was sold as a hifi streaming system which could be added to make a truly remarkable system. But now products have an EOL policy, let me put it this way if I were to see a cake that cost £50 and I know that cake has a sell by date of a week. And there was another cake that costs £20 but has no use by date which one would you buy?? But again you have the £50 cake and the £20 cake both have no use by date, you buy the £50 cake as it a better quality but find out later it does have a use by date how would you feel about that.you would think I might as well got the £20 cake, this is exactly what sonos has done and frankly has killed the brand. Sonos may come up with this solution or that explanation of what will happen but non of the statementments returns us to the status que we had when we brought our systems. The sonos board ignore this fact at the company's peril but it's not to late to turn this around but I fear you won't.

To vastly overextend the metaphor, we always knew all cakes for sale have some best before date. We now know for Sonos cakes that is in theory at least 5 years from date of purchase, probably much longer for newer recipe cakes and the cake may in fact turn out to still be good to eat well after that best before date (but no more icing or sprinkles will be offered). Also I’ve had the enjoyment of both having my cake and eating it throughout that period!

I’m intrigued if there really are other brands of smart speakers or connected audio who can boast the same longevity of support and new features.

That’s the point we didn’t know our cakes had a use before date and made our purchases thus. Maybe we all were just fooled at the end of the day and the cake had a use by date and we were not told about it until now.

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Wkelkel

Enthusiast II

Some pointers if the directors and managers at Sonos feel that this will go away

Feel free to insert into your agenda on Monday

1 The majority of the Sonos community will now not go anywhere near any Play 1, Play 3, Soundbar or Subs.

2 Bricked Play 5 units will now go on sale in the second hand market. Outcome will be a tarnished reputation for Sonos when people fall for these devious buys.

3 Legacy users will no longer sell their equipment onto the secondhand market and new users will no longer be introduced to Sonos via this route

4 The Sonos name will now become a company associated with a reputation for ending lifespan of hardware prematurely. Unfair yes but there for the taking now open to being crtitised.

Solution easy…

1 let modern units continue to be updated along side legacy units

2 Scrap this 21 day brick scheme and let people keep their old units. These can be recycled by passing them on and introducing others to Sonos

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Mollysman

Lyricist I

I bought my SONOS equipment from Richer Sounds UK a great shop I wasn't told that SONOS equipment had a limited life they may not have known. I suppose we won't get anywhere untill the tech stores stop stocking there products then they will really start to listen

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Alex0703

Lyricist I

I bought my Connect:Amp in November 2017, so I expect you will update the software for 5 years from then.

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laudi

Lyricist III

The problem now is no one trusts Sonos, or its PR spin on its own announcement, or the lame ‘apology’ about ditching support for their original and best customers.

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John B

I bought my Connect:Amp in November 2017, so I expect you will update the software for 5 years from then.

Wrong. The "modern' Connect:Amp that you have is guaranteed to be supported for AT LEAST 5 years from when sales were discontinued, which was only last year. So at least 7 years from when you bought it.

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