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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KingPin

Enthusiast II

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.

They should redesign all new Sonos systems with a module holding the processor, memory and networking hardware. The module would be held in place with simple screws and could be upgraded at home when needed. The parts of the speakers that will take 50 years or more to fail are, sort off recycled. This would be good for the environment, good for our investment in the product and good for Sonos. No electronic company currently dose this, Sonos could be a world leader but would need the will to do it, just my thoughts on this mess...

The only problem, knowing “the new” Sonos by now, is that they will do it more often than needed and charge $399 per unit every time.

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.sonos.com

Now stands at 81% 1* reviews - just keeps getting worse for Sonos

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K

Kumar

They should redesign all new Sonos systems with a module holding the processor, memory and networking hardware. The module would be held in place with simple screws and could be upgraded at home when needed. The parts of the speakers that will take 50 years or more to fail are, sort off recycled. This would be good for the environment, good for our investment in the product and good for Sonos. No electronic company currently dose this, Sonos could be a world leader but would need the will to do it, just my thoughts on this mess...

The only problem, knowing “the new” Sonos by now, is that they will do it more often than needed and charge $399 per unit every time.

@KingPin - Not if they were making the speaker unit and making sure that their smart module would work only with their speaker. Unlike the case with Port/Connect, where they had no sure way to capture the downstream revenues.

I repeat, this is the way forward. Time will tell if Sonos takes it.

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

They should redesign all new Sonos systems with a module holding the processor, memory and networking hardware. The module would be held in place with simple screws and could be upgraded at home when needed. The parts of the speakers that will take 50 years or more to fail are, sort off recycled. This would be good for the environment, good for our investment in the product and good for Sonos. No electronic company currently dose this, Sonos could be a world leader but would need the will to do it, just my thoughts on this mess...

The only problem, knowing “the new” Sonos by now, is that they will do it more often than needed and charge $399 per unit every time.

@KingPin - Not if they were making the speaker unit and making sure that their smart module would work only with their speaker. Unlike the case with Port/Connect, where they had no sure way to capture the downstream revenues.

I repeat, this is the way forward. Time will tell if Sonos takes it.

That would work really well - Assuming you only had connections to the amplifiers(s)/sound board and power board. A totally self contained control unit that is easily replaceable and updateable, with a minimal interface to the powered speaker. That said you could do the same with a Raspberry Pi

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F

Fobskid

Enthusiast I

Kumar

I agree and understand BUT Sonos is not flavour of the month for me right now

As i said I wont be buying anything Sonos from now on .

If i could resell my existing kit now i would but second hand kit is worthless now .

I have other connected devices BUT this has enlightened me about ANY internet connected device

So… i will just buy the cheapest kit from now on rather than “high” end kit “

Why waste good hard earned money ….

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G

Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

Kumar

I agree and understand BUT Sonos is not flavour of the month for me right now

As i said I wont be buying anything Sonos from now on .

If i could resell my existing kit now i would but second hand kit is worthless now .

I have other connected devices BUT this has enlightened me about ANY internet connected device

So… i will just buy the cheapest kit from now on rather than “high” end kit “

Why waste good hard earned money ….

This ^

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N

NO MORE SONOS

Trending Lyricist I

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.sonos.com

Now stands at 81% 1* reviews - just keeps getting worse for Sonos

This is brutal but they deserve all of it.

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#BoycottSonos

C

Chris_183

Enthusiast II

The “SONOS is a Computer” argument is wrong.

First - it was never sold as a computer, it was sold as an audio product.

Second - if they were computers, then a new SONOS PORT which replaces the CONNECT, would cost ½ the price ($175) instead of $100 more ($450 vs the CONNECTs $350).

Even more shocking, is the ZonePlayer90 (the original CONNECT) debuted in 2008. So after a decade SONOS new COMPUTER, added 480 MB memory and storage (not GB, MB), added a trigger port, airplay 2 support and a 10 db improvement in S/N ratio.

So what WHY ARE SONOS customers paying $450 for a port, or $350 for a CONNECT, when we know the cost to manufacture these items is somewhere south of $10, because we were paying for lifetime support of the firmware, not five years.

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S

sjmleicester

Lyricist III

The “SONOS is a Computer” argument is wrong.

First - it was never sold as a computer, it was sold as an audio product.

Second - if they were computers, then a new SONOS PORT which replaces the CONNECT, would cost ½ the price ($175) instead of $100 more ($450 vs the CONNECTs $350).

Even more shocking, is the ZonePlayer90 (the original CONNECT) debuted in 2008. So after a decade SONOS new COMPUTER, added 480 MB memory and storage (not GB, MB), added a trigger port, airplay 2 support and a 10 db improvement in S/N ratio.

So what WHY ARE SONOS customers paying $450 for a port, or $350 for a CONNECT, when we know the cost to manufacture these items is somewhere south of $10, because we were paying for lifetime support of the firmware, not five years.

£400 for a Sonos port here in the UK is a ludicrous price for what it is. You could buy a fully fledged Denon / Sonos AV receiver for that. These days those devices come with built in Airplay 2, Chromecast audio etc on top of all the other brilliant stuff they do. Even with the 30% trade it’s still too expensive.

Think I’m just going to stay with all my legacy kit for now and see how things pan out. It does what I need it to do for now

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K

Kumar

Think I’m just going to stay with all my legacy kit for now and see how things pan out. It does what I need it to do for now

John MacFarlane is one of the Sonos founders and was CEO till a couple of years ago. He has tweeted that he is planning to do the quoted, with his legacy products. He puts it slightly differently, he says that he will keep them till Sonos puts out an update that he wants.

So you are in august company.

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