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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

    Show previous replies
    John B
    Mar 10, 2020 7:22 AM UTC

    It is indeed masses more memory in this context.  Sonos have probably had only a fraction of the 32MB as marginal memory to play with and have kept products fully updated for 15 years.  I think the effective increase is much bigger than 8x.  I suspect even the Play:3 with its 64MB will last much longer than the minimum guaranteed by Sonos.  I certainly won’t be worrying about it.

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      DK_Madsen
      Enthusiast II
      Mar 10, 2020 8:10 AM UTC

      Huge difference between 32 and 256MB theres 8 times more memory in the gen2, i dont think thats ever going to be a problem, and If so, i hope sonos Will find a way through the problem, Im happy If my play 5’s gen2 last for atleast 7-8 years, i Will just save a few bucks every month for years and buy the new ones, imagine what people spend on smartphones, thousand dollars every 2 years or so, its tech, but i have confidence in the 256mb menory, 

      I bet that when they designed the Play 5 1.gen they also said “32 Mbyte is enough, we will never fill that up”

       

      Also, your claims that sonos will never use up 256 Mbyte makes Sonos look really silly for having put 1Gbyte of ram and rom into the One, Beam,  amp, one gen2 and the move.


      What on earth were they thinking off, wasting good ram and rom on someting that Daniel says they will never use anyway.

       

      How is it the old saying goes…..640kb ought to be enough for everybody.

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      John B
      Mar 10, 2020 8:11 AM UTC

      I made no such claim. Wild or otherwise.

      Indeed you didn’t.  A wild claim from you would also be a first on here, I believe.

      Translate
      DK_Madsen
      Enthusiast II
      Mar 10, 2020 8:17 AM UTC

      It is indeed masses more memory in this context.  Sonos have probably had only a fraction of the 32MB as marginal memory to play with and have kept products fully updated for 15 years.  I think the effective increase is much bigger than 8x.  I suspect even the Play:3 with its 64MB will last much longer than the minimum guaranteed by Sonos.  I certainly won’t be worrying about it.


      Until the streaming providers change to formats that are more compressed to save bandwidth cost, and the processor is not able to decode the stream fast enough.

       

      I think the worst problem here is that sonos did not update their product in 6 years.

       

      The play 5 1.gen was released in 2009, and i bought mine in 2015.

       

      Why on earth did they not make a “Play 5.1” in 2012, and the only difference would be to put in a new processor and more ram/rom

       

      Certainly they would be able to get a faster CPU for the same money in 2012, and also the prices on flash and ram storage chips would mean that they could get a 256 Mbyte variant for the same money in 2012.

       

      Why use the same processor and low amount of ram for 6 years, release the 2.gen and then only support the Play 5 1.gen’s for 5 years after that.

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      John B
      Mar 10, 2020 8:24 AM UTC

      Huge difference between 32 and 256MB theres 8 times more memory in the gen2, i dont think thats ever going to be a problem, and If so, i hope sonos Will find a way through the problem, Im happy If my play 5’s gen2 last for atleast 7-8 years, i Will just save a few bucks every month for years and buy the new ones, imagine what people spend on smartphones, thousand dollars every 2 years or so, its tech, but i have confidence in the 256mb menory, 

      I bet that when they designed the Play 5 1.gen they also said “32 Mbyte is enough, we will never fill that up”

       

      Also, your claims that sonos will never use up 256 Mbyte makes Sonos look really silly for having put 1Gbyte of ram and rom into the One, Beam,  amp, one gen2 and the move.


      What on earth were they thinking off, wasting good ram and rom on someting that Daniel says they will never use anyway.

       

      How is it the old saying goes…..640kb ought to be enough for everybody.

      Memory is cheap now compared with 2009.  The impact of overloading on cost is much less significant now. 

      It’s a fair point. though,  that developments always, inevitably, overtake memory that seems more than adequate now.  So it’s a judgement call, as none of us knows.  My judgement is that the Play:5 gen 2 will be good for another 10 years plus, and I will act accordingly.  You may make a different call and act differently.  Fine.

      Incidentally, I love the way you switch your arguments just to score points.  Accusing Sonos of putting too much memory in! Hilarious.  Thanks for the entertainment.

      Translate
      DK_Madsen
      Enthusiast II
      Mar 10, 2020 8:35 AM UTC

      Memory is cheap now compared with 2009.  The impact of overloading on cost is much less significant now. 

      It’s a fair point. though,  that developments always, inevitably, overtake memory that seems more than adequate now.  So it’s a judgement call, as none of us knows.  My judgement is that the Play:5 gen 2 will be good for another 10 years plus, and I will act accordingly.  You may make a different call and act differently.  Fine.

      Incidentally, I love the way you switch your arguments just to score points.  Accusing Sonos of putting too much memory in! Hilarious.  Thanks for the entertainment.

      I did not change my argument, i just say that if Daniel says that they will NEVER use up 256 Mbyte and that this amount is enough forever, it seems stupid of them to put in more memory and storage. Even though prices on memory and flash has gone down, there is a price difference between a 256 Mbyte and a 1 Gbyte flash chip and if they did not think that it was ever needed, they could have saved some money.

      Maybe it is only ½ dollar cheaper, but ½ dollar times 100.000 sold devices, would still make 50.000 dollars just for one component.

       

      The reason they have put in 1 Gbyte is because they believe that within the lifespan of these devices, they will need about that much ram/rom and that means that inside those products lifecycle, the Play 5 2.gen will be not be around for as long and this device is being sold today, alongside those other products with 4 times ram and rom.

      Rumours have it, that the Play 5 will have a “gen 3” iteration, released soon, and if this is true, then you can expect that the Play 5. 2.gen will be phased out “due to low ram/rom” in 5 years time.

      Translate
      John B
      Mar 10, 2020 9:02 AM UTC

      Memory is cheap now compared with 2009.  The impact of overloading on cost is much less significant now. 

      It’s a fair point. though,  that developments always, inevitably, overtake memory that seems more than adequate now.  So it’s a judgement call, as none of us knows.  My judgement is that the Play:5 gen 2 will be good for another 10 years plus, and I will act accordingly.  You may make a different call and act differently.  Fine.

      Incidentally, I love the way you switch your arguments just to score points.  Accusing Sonos of putting too much memory in! Hilarious.  Thanks for the entertainment.

      I did not change my argument, i just say that if Daniel says that they will NEVER use up 256 Mbyte and that this amount is enough forever, it seems stupid of them to put in more memory and storage. Even though prices on memory and flash has gone down, there is a price difference between a 256 Mbyte and a 1 Gbyte flash chip and if they did not think that it was ever needed, they could have saved some money.

      Maybe it is only ½ dollar cheaper, but ½ dollar times 100.000 sold devices, would still make 50.000 dollars just for one component.

       

      The reason they have put in 1 Gbyte is because they believe that within the lifespan of these devices, they will need about that much ram/rom and that means that inside those products lifecycle, the Play 5 2.gen will be not be around for as long and this device is being sold today, alongside those other products with 4 times ram and rom.

      Rumours have it, that the Play 5 will have a “gen 3” iteration, released soon, and if this is true, then you can expect that the Play 5. 2.gen will be phased out “due to low ram/rom” in 5 years time.

      Well your speculation is as good as mine.  I have heard all sorts of rumours about Sonos products.  And interested to learn that you have inside information about why Sonos put 1GB of memory in the One.  Also interesting to learn that you no longer believe that Sonos put too much memory in the One, so that you can re-justify a claim that the gen 2 Play;5 is a dead man walking.  Gets funnier by the post.

      Translate
      DK_Madsen
      Enthusiast II
      Mar 10, 2020 9:19 AM UTC

      Memory is cheap now compared with 2009.  The impact of overloading on cost is much less significant now. 

      It’s a fair point. though,  that developments always, inevitably, overtake memory that seems more than adequate now.  So it’s a judgement call, as none of us knows.  My judgement is that the Play:5 gen 2 will be good for another 10 years plus, and I will act accordingly.  You may make a different call and act differently.  Fine.

      Incidentally, I love the way you switch your arguments just to score points.  Accusing Sonos of putting too much memory in! Hilarious.  Thanks for the entertainment.

      I did not change my argument, i just say that if Daniel says that they will NEVER use up 256 Mbyte and that this amount is enough forever, it seems stupid of them to put in more memory and storage. Even though prices on memory and flash has gone down, there is a price difference between a 256 Mbyte and a 1 Gbyte flash chip and if they did not think that it was ever needed, they could have saved some money.

      Maybe it is only ½ dollar cheaper, but ½ dollar times 100.000 sold devices, would still make 50.000 dollars just for one component.

       

      The reason they have put in 1 Gbyte is because they believe that within the lifespan of these devices, they will need about that much ram/rom and that means that inside those products lifecycle, the Play 5 2.gen will be not be around for as long and this device is being sold today, alongside those other products with 4 times ram and rom.

      Rumours have it, that the Play 5 will have a “gen 3” iteration, released soon, and if this is true, then you can expect that the Play 5. 2.gen will be phased out “due to low ram/rom” in 5 years time.

      Well your speculation is as good as mine.  I have heard all sorts of rumours about Sonos products.  And interested to learn that you have inside information about why Sonos put 1GB of memory in the One.  Also interesting to learn that you no longer believe that Sonos put too much memory in the One, so that you can re-justify a claim that the gen 2 Play;5 is a dead man walking.  Gets funnier by the post.

      Wow you are really good at reading stuff in my posts that i never said.

       

      I never said they put to much ram/rom in the newest products, i say that if DANIEL says that they will never use more than 256 Mbyte, then they would have put to much inside, in relation to his claims.

      The Play 5 gen 1 was retired after 6 years, and the Play 5 gen 2 is 5 years old….

       

      I would think it was risky to upgrade the gen 1 to a gen 2 right now, as Sonos tries to get people to do.

       

      The SUB that i was thinking of buying before they did this, is from 2012 and only has 64/64 making it REALLY dangerous to buy right now, in a “long term” perspective.

      Now that sonos has let the cat out of the box and showed that their products are not just gonna work “forever” whou would dare buy one of their older products.

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        bockersjv
        bockersjv
        Local Superstar
        Mar 10, 2020 9:30 AM UTC

        Memory is cheap now compared with 2009.  The impact of overloading on cost is much less significant now. 

        It’s a fair point. though,  that developments always, inevitably, overtake memory that seems more than adequate now.  So it’s a judgement call, as none of us knows.  My judgement is that the Play:5 gen 2 will be good for another 10 years plus, and I will act accordingly.  You may make a different call and act differently.  Fine.

        Incidentally, I love the way you switch your arguments just to score points.  Accusing Sonos of putting too much memory in! Hilarious.  Thanks for the entertainment.

        I did not change my argument, i just say that if Daniel says that they will NEVER use up 256 Mbyte and that this amount is enough forever, it seems stupid of them to put in more memory and storage. Even though prices on memory and flash has gone down, there is a price difference between a 256 Mbyte and a 1 Gbyte flash chip and if they did not think that it was ever needed, they could have saved some money.

        Maybe it is only ½ dollar cheaper, but ½ dollar times 100.000 sold devices, would still make 50.000 dollars just for one component.

         

        The reason they have put in 1 Gbyte is because they believe that within the lifespan of these devices, they will need about that much ram/rom and that means that inside those products lifecycle, the Play 5 2.gen will be not be around for as long and this device is being sold today, alongside those other products with 4 times ram and rom.

        Rumours have it, that the Play 5 will have a “gen 3” iteration, released soon, and if this is true, then you can expect that the Play 5. 2.gen will be phased out “due to low ram/rom” in 5 years time.

        Well your speculation is as good as mine.  I have heard all sorts of rumours about Sonos products.  And interested to learn that you have inside information about why Sonos put 1GB of memory in the One.  Also interesting to learn that you no longer believe that Sonos put too much memory in the One, so that you can re-justify a claim that the gen 2 Play;5 is a dead man walking.  Gets funnier by the post.

        Wow you are really good at reading stuff in my posts that i never said.

         

        I never said they put to much ram/rom in the newest products, i say that if DANIEL says that they will never use more than 256 Mbyte, then they would have put to much inside, in relation to his claims.

        The Play 5 gen 1 was retired after 6 years, and the Play 5 gen 2 is 5 years old….

         

        I would think it was risky to upgrade the gen 1 to a gen 2 right now, as Sonos tries to get people to do.

         

        The SUB that i was thinking of buying before they did this, is from 2012 and only has 64/64 making it REALLY dangerous to buy right now, in a “long term” perspective.

        Now that sonos has let the cat out of the box and showed that their products are not just gonna work “forever” whou would dare buy one of their older products.

        Yet more misinformation and scaremongering.  If you choose to lock down your system it will run until the electronics fail, probably well over 10 years depending on the life of electronic components such as capacitors.  That applies to all electronics.  Maybe wait for the details on 9th May for the legacy kit?  

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          John B
          Mar 10, 2020 9:46 AM UTC

          @DK_Madsen .  Re the Sub.  The Sub will continue to do what it has always done on 64MB of memory. - make loud, low frequency noises when instructed to do so by the Sonos player to which it is bonded.

          As @bockersjv says, just scaremongering and misinformation from you.

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