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Ryan S
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
Jan 22, 2020 3:20 PM UTC

End of Software Support - Clarifications

  • Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
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End of Software Support - Clarifications

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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    4256 replies

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    DK_Madsen
    Enthusiast II
    Jan 27, 2020 7:47 AM UTC

    Let's be clear, the reasoning of devices reaching technical limits is just a poor excuse.

    Those devices being categorised as legacy need do nothing more than receive an audio stream.

    It is ENTIRELY possible for this to be done by having another device in the mesh/network do the processing and pass this stream to a legacy device.

    It could be achieved by either the addition of a separate single box in the mesh controlling this, or existing more powerful devices processing the audio for its legacy neighbour/s.

    It is exactly the same principal as your wireless headphones with 2mb ram being able to play sound while your phone, ipad whatever does the work of receiving, transcodeing and transmitting the stream.

    This move by sonos, coupled with it's new hardware having a "5 year support" line is nothing but a transition toward making sonos a disposable item like a smartphone.

    A single smartphone in my pocket may be disposable every 5 years.

    A 20 zone multi room music system with a £6000 ($8000) price tag, is NOT a 5 year disposable item for me.


    They can even make it so that the speaker itself does this.

    They say they do not have anough flash and ram, but right now every speaker runs the same firmware, meaning that a lot of code inside for example the Play 5 is not used for the play 5.

    Alexa integration, airplay 2 integration and a whole lot of other stuff.

    If they took the latest firmware, trimmed it down to the bare essentials needed for current features, they would probably have loads of space left.

    What they need to do is get away from the “every speaker MUST have identical firmware” and begin “Legacy devices has basic firmware that the new firmware versions can talk to, and enable the functions that the legacy device can handle like multiroom streaming and MP3 playback”.

     

    I would even think that this approach would give them enough space to be able to update streaming services, if they change the way their stream works….Atleast until such a time, that the actual processor can not keep up, and at that time they would be able to do as you suggest.

    They could even make a bit of money if they made a “legacy / Modern” bridge, that facilitatet the connection between new and old. This bridge would contain “plenty of ram/rom/processing power”.

     

    But i suspect they would rather “force” you to buy a lot of new speakers instead of one legacy to modern bridge.

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      NO MORE SONOS
      Trending Lyricist I
      Jan 27, 2020 8:07 AM UTC

      a

      Let's be clear, the reasoning of devices reaching technical limits is just a poor excuse.

      Those devices being categorised as legacy need do nothing more than receive an audio stream.

      It is ENTIRELY possible for this to be done by having another device in the mesh/network do the processing and pass this stream to a legacy device.

      It could be achieved by either the addition of a separate single box in the mesh controlling this, or existing more powerful devices processing the audio for its legacy neighbour/s.

      It is exactly the same principal as your wireless headphones with 2mb ram being able to play sound while your phone, ipad whatever does the work of receiving, transcodeing and transmitting the stream.

      This move by sonos, coupled with it's new hardware having a "5 year support" line is nothing but a transition toward making sonos a disposable item like a smartphone.

      A single smartphone in my pocket may be disposable every 5 years.

      A 20 zone multi room music system with a £6000 ($8000) price tag, is NOT a 5 year disposable item for me.


      They can even make it so that the speaker itself does this.

      They say they do not have anough flash and ram, but right now every speaker runs the same firmware, meaning that a lot of code inside for example the Play 5 is not used for the play 5.

      Alexa integration, airplay 2 integration and a whole lot of other stuff.

      If they took the latest firmware, trimmed it down to the bare essentials needed for current features, they would probably have loads of space left.

      What they need to do is get away from the “every speaker MUST have identical firmware” and begin “Legacy devices has basic firmware that the new firmware versions can talk to, and enable the functions that the legacy device can handle like multiroom streaming and MP3 playback”.

       

      I would even think that this approach would give them enough space to be able to update streaming services, if they change the way their stream works….Atleast until such a time, that the actual processor can not keep up, and at that time they would be able to do as you suggest.

      They could even make a bit of money if they made a “legacy / Modern” bridge, that facilitatet the connection between new and old. This bridge would contain “plenty of ram/rom/processing power”.

       

      But i suspect they would rather “force” you to buy a lot of new speakers instead of one legacy to modern bridge.

       

      This is exactly why I think it's a financial decision. 

       

      Instead of making separate firmware / a distributed computing model, they are encouraging customers to upgrade perfectly good hardware.

       

      There aren't any other obvious motivators to go down that path. They knew they would take a PR hit for it. They must have gambled on making a profit in the long run. 

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      #BoycottSonos
        andrew_boswell
        Lyricist I
        Jan 27, 2020 8:16 AM UTC

        I have invested a lot of money in Sonos products over the past few years. Ending support for them so soon is very disappointing. 
         

        Luckily Amazon are now providing Echo Studio and other high quality sound products at much lower cost so I will switch to them from now on. Unlike Sonos, Amazon has never let me down. 

        I don’t expect Sonos to be around much longer  You will be getting no more money from me anyway.

         

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          Kumar
          Jan 27, 2020 8:29 AM UTC

          Even the Sonos founder (John MacFarlane) has “legacy” products (he also has a few other comments):

          https://twitter.com/johnlmacfarlane?lang=en

          This is BIG. Among other things it establishes that the Sonos founder and CEO for a decade plus till the present one took over, did not see any value/merit in the Trade Up scheme. And that he sees no point in upgrading the legacy parts of his 14 zone system at this point in time.

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            KC007
            Lyricist I
            Jan 27, 2020 9:28 AM UTC

            So, a well known luxury car maker, from whom you bought a car about 5 years ago contacts you.

            “We are going to put a new engine in our cars from May and therefore we are going to stop servicing support to the older engines.  We can offer you a new engine for your “old” car at a modest discount, however if you decided not to take up this offer, we can not guarantee that your car will continue to work if anybody changes their specifications on oils and fuels in the future.  You can if you wish separate the engine from the rest of the car, in which case we will continue to service and repair the bodywork, cabin, tyres and suspension as before.  If you don’t wish to separate the engine from the the rest of the car. we will not service any of it.”

            Please let us know how you wish to proceed.

            PS.  Sorry

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              Rob NYC1
              Enthusiast II
              Jan 27, 2020 10:40 AM UTC

              Does anyone have any idea what features the May firmware update is going to add that resulted in the “Legacy/Modern” decision?   Is SONOS going to add multi-room synchronized audio playback?  Wait.  SONOS already has that.    

              I’m usually not the type of person who angrily posts online; but, this decision really is upsetting.    Of all the ways SONOS could have phased-out older tech, it seemed to choose the one that said, the loudest.    And then when we all complained, the CEO sent around a note that said, “Hey, I hear you’re upset.  Well I’m sorry your upset.  And, by the way, F*ck Y*u.”

              Really, SONOS.  Really?  This was the best you could come up with as a way to move forward?   And, to top it all off, your CEO just  complained to Congress about how google/amazon was squeezing SONOS and other smaller competitors out of the market.   All while you were planning on doing this to your customer base?    

              Patrick Spence needs to grow one of those old-timely-long-black-curly-mustaches so we know upfront just how evil he is.  

              Translate
                fabdad1
                Contributor I
                Jan 27, 2020 10:43 AM UTC

                Quite simply what a bunch of idiots.  I have run and continue to run several companies.  In no possible drug fueled session could i come up with a better way to damage a competitors business than what Sonos have done to themselves. 

                 

                Customers expensive speakers the value of which wiped out within a seconds, future sales decimated, product brand killed.

                 

                Its not a step back and saying we got it wrong, of course we will support these expensive products, and do any small hardware tweeks for a small fee if necessary to make sure they can still work for another decade or more to come, but there should be vacant chairs at the board meetings for the stupid greedy idiots who thought this was ever a good strategic company decision.   

                 

                Good bye Sonos,  i have 15 of your units you have now valued as zero, as i would never ever buy another of your products as the situation stands, or your current CEO is in place!!!!

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                  KingPin
                  Enthusiast II
                  Jan 27, 2020 10:44 AM UTC

                  To name this thread “Clarifications” is a joke, I am more confused, angry and sad than I was before reading it. Sonos’ communication on this whole thing is beyond abysmal. This is like finding out that the woman you loved and envisioned living with until the end of days suddenly turning schizophrenic and psychotic. You cannot believe it, but she is incommunicable. You want it to not be true, and hope for the best, but you realize that you may have to end it.  

                  Translate
                    fabdad1
                    Contributor I
                    Jan 27, 2020 11:10 AM UTC

                    What really annoys me when i search about the backlash, is that clearly some PR person from Sonos has tried to make it seem the most upsetting aspect customers have is that new and old will not work together in a single system or the new cant have s/w upgrades, and oops let it be known that yes they can now do something about that so all is ok.

                     

                    WELL THAT IS NOT WHAT IS ANNOYING ME AT ALL, OR IT THINK THE MAJORITY OF YOUR NOW EX LOYAL CUSTOMERS

                     

                    Its the fact the 15 Sonos devices i have that Sonos labels as legacy ( I label as dam expensive speakers now worthless)  are NOT going to be software upgraded IN THE FUTURE to work with my on line streaming accounts such as Deezer, meaning they are useless to me once AND WHILST sonos suddenly claims Deezer will not work anymore with my Sonos kit, due to Sonos lazy ass, greedy, customer bashing, brand damaging  policy does not change.

                     

                    Stop trying to spin your self away FROM THE FACT you have just written off 100,000s of customers investment in your product by suggesting we are upset about something as small as “legacy not working with New” on a single system, its the fact you are not s/w updating older products to work with the services we bought our product to work with,as i would not ever now buy any of your new kit from now on ever ever again.

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                      Fobskid
                      Enthusiast I
                      Jan 27, 2020 11:10 AM UTC

                       

                      KC007

                      You got it EXACTLY right !!!!!!

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