Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
4256 replies
269753 views

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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cosmo35166

Enthusiast I

Hitting the Seeking Alpha stock site just now;

Sonos drops amid device support backlash

Jan. 22, 2020 12:52 PM ET|About: Sonos, Inc. (SONO)|By: Brandy Betz, SA News Editor

Sonos (NASDAQ:SONO) continues to feel stock price and social media pressure from yesterday's announcement that the company would no longer support some models released between 2006 and 2009.

The support ends in May.

The company informed customers they could either continue to use the products without updates or purchase a new Sonos product at a 30% discount.

Statement from Sonos: "As this is the first time we’ve had to end software updates for any music player, we recognize this is new for Sonos owners, just as it is for Sonos. We’ve now come to the point where our oldest products have been stretched to their technical limits in terms of memory and processing power."

Sonos shares are down 1.2% to $14.63.

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Witthaus

Trending Lyricist I

@Ryan S Please go away you corporate shill….you should be ashamed

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bonervz

Enthusiast II

Hello to Sonos and their community.

I haven’t read every single comment on this thread, but it would seem that a lot of people are unhappy. My comment, for what it’s worth, is that I bear no animosity towards Sonos. It is inevitable that this will happen to every “smart” device at some point. Sonos, are just the first to do it. To name a few, we have had Bose, Yamaha, Denon, and B&O speakers over the last couple of years. We were in search of superior sound and only found it in Sonos. Where Bose is concerned, they do have a relatively good sound, but the software and services that are included in both their SoundTouch, and Smart devices, is incredibly limited. We had many negative experiences, with every device, until we bought Sonos. Yes, their “legacy” announcement was a shock, but it is not going to be the only company to do this. Sonos are just the first to do it. The hardware in their “legacy” devices, has simply reached its limit and can no longer be “confidently” updated. If Sonos are to remain ahead of their competitors, in a saturated market, then they have to make controversial and difficult decisions such as this.

I would like to say that Ihave not bought a Sonos “smart” speaker. I have avoided the Sonos one for the exact reason that I figured that it would be a device with a shorter lifespan as a result of the “smart” integration. None of my 30 components (including 2 Play 5 (Gen1), 1 connect Amp, 2 Connect, 2 Play 3 (Gen 1), 3 play 1, 2 playbars, and 2 subs) are “smart”. Yes they are internet connected but that is a very different thing in my mind. I can buy a stand alone amazon Echo or Google nest mini if I want smart control of my Sonos speakers which I did to limit the number of “disposable” items.

I purchased Sonos because it allowed me to have an integrated experience and didn’t require that I run wires around my house. I use them for a limited number of services (streaming personal library, Spotify, and TuneIn) and don’t need more than maintenance of the current services. I don’t believe that this is too much to ask. I don’t expect Sonos to keep upgrading my current components if there are technical limitations but I also don’t expect them to simply say that they will no longer support older equipment because the new equipment will have additional functionality.

I think it’s a misscaracterization to say that the legacy equipment can no longer be “confidently” updated. There is no evidence that the equipment could not continue to receive updates should there be small updates to the APIs of the services assuming, what they may not be able to do is “confidently” upgrade legacy components, which I for one can accept. What they appear to be saying is that the legacy components will simply be set adrift to die a slow death as providers tweak their APIs.

I agree. The Play 5 and Connect are not “Smart”. They have one purpose, and only one purpose. To stream music. Period. That has not changed since they first hit the market. They should not become obsolete at the whim of the lazy developer who , as always, think they know better than the users.

The only thing smart here are the disgruntled posters who are voicing their disgust with a company who has blatantly and lamentably, decided to piss on our parade. Miserable bastards.

Sonos from leader to loser in 2020.

J

Johnnydot

Enthusiast I

Interestingly, Sonos encourage you to email there CEO directly if you want to talk to them.

However the link is greyed out today… https://www.sonos.com/en/contact

Maybe his email box is full from irate customers like myself.

I did ring, and left a voicemail for him…. as we cant email him anymore

I emailed him yesterday AND got a reply! Sad to say it was just corporate bs-speak. Come on Patrick, resign and let someone who gives a damn run sonos. Since the company went NASDAQ, it has become more about share buybacks and dodgy corporate manipulation than HiFi.

E

ewolkoff

Enthusiast II

Hello to Sonos and their community.

I haven’t read every single comment on this thread, but it would seem that a lot of people are unhappy. My comment, for what it’s worth, is that I bear no animosity towards Sonos. It is inevitable that this will happen to every “smart” device at some point. Sonos, are just the first to do it. To name a few, we have had Bose, Yamaha, Denon, and B&O speakers over the last couple of years. We were in search of superior sound and only found it in Sonos. Where Bose is concerned, they do have a relatively good sound, but the software and services that are included in both their SoundTouch, and Smart devices, is incredibly limited. We had many negative experiences, with every device, until we bought Sonos. Yes, their “legacy” announcement was a shock, but it is not going to be the only company to do this. Sonos are just the first to do it. The hardware in their “legacy” devices, has simply reached its limit and can no longer be “confidently” updated. If Sonos are to remain ahead of their competitors, in a saturated market, then they have to make controversial and difficult decisions such as this.

I agree with this view too. This is the nature of the beast with integrated hardware/software solutions. Bose discontinued Soundtouch overnight. That’s always a risk. We are all invested in Sonos’s continuing operation by having their stuff. If this is part of what is necessary to keep innovating, then that’s the deal.

Sure if that is the view you want to take...I agree...HOWEVER, moving forward I will not invest in high priced company who touts themselves as ‘eco friendly’ and ‘delivering something better than the rest’……

We could copy that onto pretty much any major electronics’ company message board, and it would apply to them. Apple no longer supports the iPhone 4. Samsung doesn’t release updates for old devices - all the apps on my Samsung TV are dead. Same with LG -- I’ve lost a bunch of functionality since I got it. Bose just discontinued Soundtouch and left all their customers hanging. I mean I totally get the anger -- I had to outlay a bunch of money to upgrade my Sonos system yesterday. It would have been great if they had made this announcement before the January 9 price increase. That being said, this is how tech companies operate in 2020. If Samsung decides the SmartThings hub isnt profitable, my whole house integration will be shut down. We are at the mercy of technology updates and companies that are profit seeking. The alternative is just to not use these kinds of products, which is fine too. But I don’t think trying to ruin Sonos’s business with bad reviews is very helpful. The result will be that whatever current Sonos products you have that work will be worthless or worth a lot less money. How is that a good thing for anyone here?

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chris_h1957

Enthusiast I

Interestingly, Sonos encourage you to email there CEO directly if you want to talk to them.

However the link is greyed out today… https://www.sonos.com/en/contact

Maybe his email box is full from irate customers like myself.

I did ring, and left a voicemail for him…. as we cant email him anymore

This is the e-mail address patrick.spence@sonos.com

U

User443206

Contributor I

I had my e mail just yesterday and am utterly shocked and appalled. Its a flipping music streaming system for goodness sake! How complicated does that need to be? I have invested a considerable amount of money in my Sonos system…..3 Play 5 units, a connect amp and a connect and you’re telling me it’ll soon be useless. Well guess which system I will NOT be investing in ever again and will advise everyone I possibly can not to invest either! You had better do a 360 degree U turn on this decision pretty damned quick Sonos or face market redundancy in my opinion.

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timcourtney

Avid Contributor I

Was a loyal customer. Crazy they are doing this. They did this to me on their remote controls. I should have stopped then. No more!

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Parafly

Trending Lyricist I

Here are some ideas so this doesn’t happen again in the future:

Sell a new hardware device that adds to your system which has plenty of processing power to handle new software updates, etc. and “bridges” to your legacy equipment, allowing it to still function, while removing the processing workload from the speakers themselves and putting it into this new device. This is something I would gladly invest in every 3 - 5 years as new features are released.
Ensure all new products have upgradeable memory / processor modules so that in the future customers can upgrade their equipment without having to buy an entirely new speaker.
Offer an option to send in legacy equipment to have memory / processor upgrades performed at at a reasonable cost without needing to replace the entire unit.
Simply maintain functionality on legacy equipment as it is today, without promising any new features in the future. I’m OK with not getting upcoming features because the system can’t handle it; but I don’t want to lose features I bought it for now. My use case is primarily Google Play Music. If that goes, my sonos system is basically useless as when Sonos provided GPM, i stopped investing in my own personal music library.

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HelterSkelter

Enthusiast II

This announcement is having an impact on online reviews. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.sonos.com

I’ve added a review and I encourage everyone else to do the same. Sonos will probably decide to suppress this forum discussion sooner or later, but they can’t remove the reviews on other sites.

Alternatively, for someone to offer a service whereby you send in your Sonos kit and for a fee they physically add a line-in type socket (or maybe a custom wifi chip) which could then be connected to a 3rd party system? At the end of the day, whatever Sonos do, there are tweeters, woofers etc. in there which can be made to produce sound someway, somehow.

Brilliant idea.

I’d be quite happy to open up all my Sonos boxes, throw away the circuit boards, and fit a replacement ‘lets call it modern’ motherboard and wifi from another enterprising young company.

We’ve all got lot’s of excellent speaker enclosures, with super sound quality, and power supplies.

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