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Ryan S
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
January 22, 2020

End of Software Support - Clarifications

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

    This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

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    Show previous replies
    morgan4x4
    Enthusiast II
    January 22, 2020

     

    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.

     

    You missed out a vital point, does this mean the legacy and modern will be interoperable? Or completely seperate? I am fine with my legacy speakers not getting updates, but I want my modern speakers to get updates and new features. I then EXEPCT to be still able to group music between legacy and modern.

    This is the main issue on the table!  I have 26 SONOS devices, 16 of which are “legacy”. If you tell me I have to separate them out, then you gave failed in your mission, and why I purchased $10k of equipment from you… to have Whole House Audio.  
     

     

      BW1986
      Contributor I
      January 22, 2020

      Seeing as you've closed the other thread I'd just like to reiterate that from a technical perspective I believe that there is ways to support "legacy" products in the ecosystem and prevent them from restricting the updates to "modern" products.

      It is extremely poor customer service to tell me that my 4 and a half year old speaker (play 5 gen:1) is going to prevent my entire sonos system from receiving updates.

      When I invest £400 in a speaker I don't do so easily as that is a large amount of money. Needless to say the beam I have recently purchased will be my final purchase from sonos if you do me out of my investment.

      Closing the previous thread just makes it look like you are trying to hide the true scale of customers displeaseasure. I never expect to spend £400 on anything to last only four years! I have a ten year old Samsung TV which cost me approximately this and I repurposed it not disposed of it because it is still a perfectly good product.

      I understand you can't support them forever. But a company who cared about their customers and their investment would come up with a solution to allow the legacy and modern speakers to co exist whilst allowing the new speakers to still receive updates.

        HelterSkelter
        Enthusiast II
        January 22, 2020

        I was just about to post on the original thread, I pressed “Send” and the system reports that the thread is closed?  OK, then I’ll take my comments to a third-party like BBC News.

        I think it’s fair to say, that the anger will continue on this new thread anyway,
        I don’t think the idea of this thread being ‘answers to technical questions raised’ will cut it.

        Good idea, re going to external media, as Sonos are clearly not listening so far.

        I see that the story is now on the top of the BBC tech page.
        ​​​​​​​
        Hardly surprising, as by Sonos’s own figures, 37% of their revenue comes from existing owners. Not any more though.

          Johnnydot
          Enthusiast I
          January 22, 2020

          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. 

          We’d like to answer some of the questions we’ve seen come up regularly 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.

          Ok, my 'legacy' equipment wont stop working on May 1st but when Spotify or whoever update THEIR OS, then byebye sonos, hello landfill. Maybe june or July, who knows? 30% discount is an insult since most retailers are offering 20% discounts so 30% becomes 10%. This is potentially a criminal offense in the UK since all items sold must be 'fit for purpose' under the Sale of Goods Act. Will sonos offer a 30% discount on Bluesound equipment? Or Denon? Why would anyone waste their money on sonos  when the company will pull the rug out from under their ex-customers and has ceased to be a HiFi system manufacturer and become a NASDAQ share trading scam. Who needs customers when the company share price is being manipulated upwards in shady trading on Wall Street? 

          SHAME ON YOU, sonos and SHAME ON CEO PATRICK SPENCE IN PARTICULAR for coming up with this blackmail and extortion scam.

           

           

            Rosey12
            Lyricist II
            January 22, 2020

            I am with the crowd that is really upset with this announcement.  I too am an early adopter of Sonos.  This “change” means that thousands of dollars of investment in a great sound system was foolishly spent. 

            In addition after spending over $2000 on Play:5s, you are telling me for another $1400 I can replace my Play:5s with lower quality Sonos Moves?!?!   How does that even make sense!   At least your upgrade program should be like for like!  And a discount for more the 30% would be better.

            I am soooo mad that I am considering ditching my whole Sonos installations.

            Sonos you really need to take better care of your early loyal customers as they are the ones who keep buying more speakers to expand their systems. (like me)

             

            Best

              kevinfowkes
              Contributor I
              January 22, 2020

              Whilst i understand the need for software updates, this smells like a really stinking marketing strategy to me. Customers buy the products and because they are expensive (lets not kid ourselves here as they really are compared to other brands available) they buy them once, perhaps add one or two more and then do not purchase any further Sonos products over a length if over ten years. Then Sonos realise they are not making enough revenue so they decide to make existing customers products obsolete so they have to spend money again with Sonos to trade up to the latest technology.

              30% off to trade up! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA……Surely you can do better than that if you want to keep these effected customers?

               

              To be honest, we should all have seen this coming. Look at mobile phone manufacturers. It has been proven that they incorporate planned obsolescence in their products. That’s why your phone starts getting glitchy when your contract is up for renewal. Encourages us to buy the latest products again.

              I also love how Sonos will recycle the old products for us. So we send them the products and then they can strip them and use the parts again in their manufacturing saving themselves money in the long run. You couldn’t make this up!!! Ha ha ha ha

              Once my Sonos system is bricked i will move my business elsewhere. But saying that, this will happen with other speaker brands so is there any point purchasing wi-fi speakers at all when they will become obsolete so quickly. They are obviously not good value for money

              Maybe it’s time we all stuck two fingers up to streaming products and go back to playing music on traditional speakers like our grandads old hi-fi!

               

              Great customer service Sonos!

                AP2050
                Lyricist III
                January 22, 2020

                As a Sonos customer, add me to this feedback. I find the way you word your communication is misleading saying that you are stretched in cpu and memory. I get it the same analogy that if a company releases a game that is multiplayer online only for $60. They can’t continue to provide updates for that game for the next 10 years without a revenue stream. 

                However, your whole brand is based upon the modular approach that people can keep on adding to their system and it will be supported. You certainly did that when Air Play 2 came out. You were able to keep non-Air Play 2 compatible products on the same version / network. Coming from a technical background, I don’t buy the fact that if a streaming service changes it’s API, the reason you can’t do it is because of CPU/RAM. It’s a API call changes, it’s a code change. Just say the truth and tell us that you need to increase the customer lifetime value of existing customers by forcing us to spend money. 

                I am even fine with a subscription service fee to get the coders to update their API calls but to cripple my entire system with NO updates, that’s completely BS.

                Also, probably the more important part is your brand. One of the pillars was that we can continue to add products to our existing ecosystem. As you said, over 90% of speakers are still supported...and then within one news release from yesterday,  you’ve killed one of the core values of the brand. 

                  morgan4x4
                  Enthusiast II
                  January 22, 2020

                  You seriously locked the feedback thread on the disgraceful announcement after 56 pages?

                   

                  what complete nonsense!

                   

                  i sent an email letter to your CEO yesterday.  Any idea when I will get a response?

                   

                  Reminder, I have 26 SONOS devices and feel betrayed.


                  richard 


                   

                   

                    PeteD
                    Enthusiast I
                    January 22, 2020

                    After May, systems that include legacy products will continue to work as before - but they will no longer receive software updates or new features.

                    So sounds like you’re saying that if a third party - Apple, Amazon or whoever - changes their software you won’t update legacy products to cope? I find it very hard to believe that the “lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products” would stop you.

                      Kumar
                      January 22, 2020

                      Perhaps you need a new way to deal with the community response, which isn’t to close the thread?

                       

                      Lol. Made my evening, that bit!

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