Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
4256 replies
269590 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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M

mjfender

Lyricist I

I too have spent a lot of money on systems for three homes along with systems for my children. I certainly hope the legal people at Sonos where consulted when this decision was made. There are alot of hungry lawyers out there who would love a class action suit like this. “Planned Obsolescence” of a product that costs this much is not acceptable-neither is insulting owners with a cheesy 30% trade up offer. Well it was a good product while it lasted. Too bad but this opens the doors for the other competitors. I bet Bose is licking their chops!!

Good Luck

R

Razorhog

Enthusiast II

Who at Sonos made the decision to announce this without answers to the inevitable flood of questions that would ensue? The price to upgrade a working device is what got me mad. Now I realize it is decidedly un-”green”. Shame on Sonos. The wrong people are now at the helm and the ship is taking on water.

J

Johnnydot

Enthusiast I

After 24 hours and 55 pages of comments (before it was closed) none of which are complimentary, here is my 2p worth.

As a past product marketing manager, here are a few key points to take into consideration when announcing a products end of support.

1. Give lots of notice and take into account how recently customers have purchased the product.

> 4 months is no notice at all really, I would expect 12 months to be reasonable, or 6 as an absolute minimum. I bought my first components in Jan 2015 and now my Connect Amp and Play 5 are declared end of support after this relatively short time.

2. Offer a painless route to upgrade the system.

> Offering 30% discount is far from painless, it is a significant additional investment just to retain current functionality. The idea also of scrapping the old hardware to recycling or worse landfill is outrageous. At least leave the units to be used for as long as they can, as by your own admission, that may not be long.

Consider a swap out at cost plus support expenses to make the exchange palatable. The current discount must still bring a good profit unless your margins are poor.

3. Be VERY clear about why you are doing this, the future benefits and the implications of retaining the current hardware.

I expect cost is the real driver here, memory and processing power is just a limitation as branching code and distributing two versions is not rocket science, but at least he honest. I understand that sonos cannot predict what may happen with future changes to streaming services, but the total lack of clarity and certainty beggars belief. How long till the rest of my system is obsoleted as I now know I will be lucky to get 4 months notice. What great new ground breaking features are coming in May that is forcing this end of support for older speakers? The dual system possibly seems to something that may or may not work, but little information is being offered about it, we are promised more info in May. Will there still be an upgrade offer when the system breaks eventually, or is this just a short term offer?

So in all you have made a real error of judgement here and have an uphill climb to resolve it, if that is even possible now. The sonos name is now badly tarnished and only a retraction and complete rethink of this proposal has any chance to recover the mess created. I really do hope some people from sonos are taking action based on this thread. Having closed the old tgread, posted a few minor clarifications and started a new one, I fear sonos simply aren't listening and underestimate the impact this will ultimately have on the company.

Sonos is no longer a hifi equipment manufacturer but a NASDAQ share value trading scam which makes hifi as a hobby. Their profits will come from share buybacks and their customers and products can go to hell.

C

chris_h1957

Enthusiast I

Anyone who is unhappy with this news has the option to email the CEO at patrick.spence@sonos.com , I have already done so

J

Johnnydot

Enthusiast I

For Sale: Complete Sonos Syestem, Works great! ….. for now.

Ill give you four quid.

K

Kumar

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.

LOL no, that would have in big bold capital letters if they were gonna let you do that. You will be able to have 2 separate Sonos setups that won’t group together

I agree; that WOULD have been in bold, so I don't see it happening. In fact, I would prefer to forego all upgrades, and let my mixed system continue to remain interoperable; that is more valuable than what almost always have been fatuous updates for my use case since 2011.

A

Arct1k

Contributor I

They just bought a Paris Based AI startup and want to run voice recognition and processing locally on the device and hence this is why the old devices don’t have the capabilities.

I don’t need this!

J

Johnnydot

Enthusiast I

Anyone who is unhappy with this news has the option to email the CEO at patrick.spence@sonos.com , I have already done so

Me too. Got a reply too. It was corporate bs doubletalk.

Shame on you Patrick.

sonos is now a NASDAQ share-trading corporation which makes hifi as a hobby.

M

Mark Renfrow

Contributor II

Just received my update message this AM but I am aware of this issue from all the bad press.

I couldn't in good conscious recommend your products to anyone anymore. I don't want your poor hardware/software decisions reflecting on me.
You have brought many new S/W features that I don't use but I understand your need to innovate and compete, but your primary value proposition is that its a “system” and that it's easy. Please try to re-remember that as you have your hands firmly around the neck of your golden goose.
Using the excuse that “technology changes rapidly” to brick your own products shows a lack of foresight that, by this admission, will inevitably continue into the future.
The solution is simple and needs one paragraph...”Everything will work just as it does today, and newer products and features will offer richer experiences and functionality beyond our legacy products.. Please be assured you will always enjoy the values that made your initial decision to buy Sonos a good one, for a lifetime of great listening.”

Now go prove you’re a great software company and do just that.

H

Henrik99

Lyricist II

Given the previous thread was closed shortly after I posted, I will repost in this one:

Having a nice installation using 6 Sonos Connect that are linked to power amplifiers throughout my house, I was a bit disgruntled already in the past.

The first was the difficulty in switching of the wireless connection of the boxes that I did not need as I prefer hard wire. Given that the Connect has RJ45 ports and can thus be physically wired, it would make sense to be able to switch off the wireless connections so as to basically cut power consumption by half, as well as reduce the heat. It took a long time discussing with Sonos support to finally be informed unofficially how I could actually send a machine code to the box for this. Not easy, but finally doable. There should have been a simple option in the configuration interface.

Then, having purchased a couple of small tablets to use as remotes, these became redundant after the Sonos app would only work on the most recent Android versions. Annoying yes, but I can to some extent understand this.

However this latest event is totally unacceptable. It has pushed me to review what else is available in the market as I certainly do not want to ever use and Sonos equipment again. Having equipment that works fine being made redundant in such a way is just wrong. Granted, we are told that the units will continue to work, but there will be no more updates. I am confident that there will be some update probably in June of the app which will ensure that music streaming services will only work with the new update.

So, I have been looking for some alternatives in the market. For my personal installation probably the most interesting will be to get 6 Yamaha WXAD-10 and switch to their MusicCast system. This would cover my needs, provide a higher quality DAC, and the Yamaha boxes cost significantly less (here in Switzerland it would be $ 170 instead of a new Sonos Port at $ 350 after the 30% discount). There are yet other alternatives I could go for such as Teufel Raumfeld which also would be cheaper.

Good bye Sonos.

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