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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W

Whitenoise

Enthusiast I

Worth noting though that the products with onboard voice assistance and/or home theatre functionality are going to use some memory for those functions beyond the regular multiroom audio. Hence the reason why the SL has less memory than the One, even though it is a newer product.

That can not be the case, Sonos has clearly stated that the reason they have to retire the older products that has less storage is that all speakers has to run on the same firmware, and now there is no more room in the 32Mbyte devices, for the firmware.

I’ve never understood ‘running on the same firmware’ to mean that the code is 100% identical on every Sonos every device. I’ve also understood it to mean that the underlying OS, drivers, and other similar ‘base’ code needs to be the same. The firmware code required to run features that are specific to certain devices would not be on devices that couldn’t use it.

If they make multiple firmwares, one for each speaker but still label the firmware with the same number, then the claim that they can not keep updating the Play 5 for example, would be void, as they could just stop adding features to the play 5 and keep sending new firmware where the only change would be the firmware revision date, to keep everything on the same firmware revision level.

Which is why I see whatever changes coming after May to be overall system performance based, or something that must be on every device in a system to function. Things that would require changes to the base code of every unit.

Yeah, this would be a fair inference that Sonos is making base-level code changes. But that also doesn't make sense. Base-level code changes should be very rare in this space, so:

You'd expect this to be, kinda like Apple's move from PowerPC, a clear statement that “To move Sonos into the future, we need to make fundamental changes that require us to remove support for some older devices. We remain committed to product longevity and do not anticipate future changes with a similar impact.” But instead, Sonos is now saying their products should last 5 years, and likening this announcement to cell phone update support timelines.
It would make clear and absolute business sense to offer a customer-friendly trade-up program. If they really expected this to be a one-time or highly unusual occurrence, keeping existing customers satisfied would clearly outweigh whatever lower profits they'd see on replacement units. But if they expect this to be re-occurring, then it makes business sense to do what they're doing: offer just enough to existing customers to sound good in a press release and shift to a broader, less passionate customer model.

Sonos' statements have been worthless in part because they're internally inconsistent. No explanation maps onto a coherent model.

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U

ursula1000

Avid Contributor I

Six obsolete devices. All right, great...
I talk for years to my friends about my great system and now I have to spend a lot of money to keep everything the same ?

I DON'T WANT ANY MORE AMAZON VOICE CONTROLS, GOOGLE... I JUST WANT TO PLAY ANY SONG IN ANY ROOM. I don't want Jeff Bezos and company listening to me in my house.

No way I'm buying more Sonos speakers. I'd rather sell them and find a better solution.

Will someone open a thread to find the best alternatives?

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melvimbe

Yeah, this would be a fair inference that Sonos is making base-level code changes. But that also doesn't make sense. Base-level code changes should be very rare in this space, so:

As far as we know, this is the first time in Sonos history. Definitely the first time players couldn’t do the base level change. Seems rare to me, but it’s a subjective term.

You'd expect this to be, kinda like Apple's move from PowerPC, a clear statement that “To move Sonos into the future, we need to make fundamental changes that require us to remove support for some older devices. We remain committed to product longevity and do not anticipate future changes with a similar impact.” But instead, Sonos is now saying their products should last 5 years, and likening this announcement to cell phone update support timelines.

I don’t think Sonos has made any reference to phone support timelines. Others have as a means of comparison, but I don’t recall Sonos making that claim. Regardless. it’s not ‘should last 5 years’, but 5 years minimum from the point we selling/producing a particular model. And that drop in support means that you will no longer get regular updates, but will get bug fixes and security updates.

That surely isn’t going to make a lot of folks happy, but not the same as 5 years and you’re guaranteed to have support dropped.

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Danny

melvimbe

Six obsolete devices. All right, great...
I talk for years to my friends about my great system and now I have to spend a lot of money to keep everything the same ?

You don’t have to spend any money to keep things the same. You can keep your device in a legacy system, sans regular updates. You will get regular break fix and security updates as long as it can be done within the hardware limitations.

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Danny

W

Whitenoise

Enthusiast I

Six obsolete devices. All right, great...
I talk for years to my friends about my great system and now I have to spend a lot of money to keep everything the same ?

You don’t have to spend any money to keep things the same. You can keep your device in a legacy system, sans regular updates. You will get regular break fix and security updates as long as it can be done within the hardware limitations.

By all accounts no break fix updates. From Sonos official FAQ:

I want to leave my Sonos system with legacy products as it is. What’s going to change?

Your Sonos system will no longer receive updates, so your experience will initially remain the same. However, the functionality of features and services will be impacted as technology, particularly music service and voice partners, evolves over time.

How long until existing functionality or features are impacted?

We don’t expect any immediate impact from ending software updates.

As changes are made to technology in the future, particularly by music service and voice partners, access to certain services or features may be disrupted. An example would be a music service partner issuing a new update that isn’t backwards compatible with legacy software.

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melvimbe

By all accounts no break fix updates. From Sonos official FAQ:

The FAQ needs to be updated. The very first post in this thread from @Ryan S, and really why the clarification thread seems to have been created in the first place, states:

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.

Regardless, Sonos really needs to make sure they have a consistent message everywhere.

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Danny

R

Rob NYC1

Enthusiast II

By all accounts no break fix updates. From Sonos official FAQ:

The FAQ needs to be updated. The very first post in this thread from @Ryan S, and really why the clarification thread seems to have been created in the first place, states:

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.

Regardless, Sonos really needs to make sure they have a consistent message everywhere.

Its a shame the engineers at Sonos couldn’t figure out a way to introduce some sort of bridge/router type product that would allow the older legacy products to continue to stream music in sync with newer products.

is there a pool for how long the legacy products will continue to function after May? Six months? 3 months? I mean Sonos sent out an update that intentionally bricked the CR100 remote so it’s not like they have a great track record in this regard.

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Smilja

By all accounts no break fix updates. From Sonos official FAQ:

The FAQ needs to be updated. The very first post in this thread from @Ryan S, and really why the clarification thread seems to have been created in the first place, states:

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.

Regardless, Sonos really needs to make sure they have a consistent message everywhere.

They already did: End of software updates for legacy products

I can’t cite it for the spam filter will immediately reject it.

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»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

W

Whitenoise

Enthusiast I

By all accounts no break fix updates. From Sonos official FAQ:

The FAQ needs to be updated. The very first post in this thread from @Ryan S, and really why the clarification thread seems to have been created in the first place, states:

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.

Regardless, Sonos really needs to make sure they have a consistent message everywhere.

Agreed, except the FAQ (Feb 3) was posted after the quoted CEO message (Jan 22).

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J

jjohncm

Lyricist III

People: The contact numbers are Nathan Strong Sales Manager and Patrick Spence CEO. I believe the SEC is looking into the sale of 33% of his stock by the Chief Product Office Nicholas Millington right before this fiasco.

https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/SONO/insider-trades/

Tell them what you think ……. get your 50% discount - you deserve it. Call the board - Volpi and others. If Ryan deletes my names - use

<first name>.<lastname>@ sonos.com

Hello John-

Thank you for contacting Sonos!

Patrick Spence asked me to reach out to you on his behalf.

Our apologies for the confusion regarding the end of software updates for legacy items that is scheduled to commence in May.

While we are unable to reverse recycling, we would like to compensate you for this inconvenience.

If you could please provide the email address associated with these Trade Up products, I will submit a retroactive credit request to our finance team for this order so there is a 50% total discount rather than 30%. You should see this credit in 10-15 business days.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for being a loyal Sonos customers

Best,

Nathan S

Moderator note: Edited out private information.
Moderator clarification: All discounts are managed on a case by case basis.

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