End of Software Support - Clarifications

Totally agree.

The functionality hasn’t changed for us the end users. Streaming music, just like they always have. 

I can understand iPhones etc getting ever more memory and cpu greedy, as new apps are developed, higher pixel camera, more storage etc etc.

Sonos kit is doing far less than that, so why it should need ever expanding memory and cpu is beyond me.

Some people have mentioned that it’s effectively a computer inside, if so, let us fit more memory and a better cpu if they really are needed!

All my kit is now considered legacy. Play 5s + connects.

Hopefully it will keep chugging away after May.

Part of the reason for not upgrading to newer kit is the price hike Sonos kit took several years ago and because my existing stuff worked. If all became incredibly expensive when AV kit in general has never been better value.

£400 for the new Port is ‘taking the Michael’ for what it does. You could buy a fairly decent AV receiver for your home cinema for around that price with built in Airplay 2 or Chromecast audio on top of all the other things it does and therefore would get a lot more use on a daily basis. Even Sky Tv  has airplay 2 built in or you can stick a cheap Chromecast or an Amazon Firestick into the back of an Av receiver or TV to stream stuff.

The Sonos Playbar is ancient now and even the Play 5 ver 2 are getting a bit long in the tooth. Priced at £699 and £499 respectively they are not exactly cheap and could be for the chop next. The same goes for the first gen Play 1 and Play 3. Surely can only be a matter of time before these become legacy products.

Fortunately I’ve got the space for a decent home cinema setup - a Denon AV receiver and, Bowers and Wilkins speakers (which no one is going to switch off soon), so Sonos sound bars don’t really interest me.

If you want Alexa or Google Home on a device, you really on need to spend around £25 for one of their basic ‘pucks’. Trying to get Alexa to play music on a Sonos player has always been a bit hit and miss so you might as well use the app. 

Although I do listen to music, it tends to be earlier stuff rather than what is produced nowadays so has my general desire to stream music has declined overall.

i don’t know if I am typical but haven’t seen the need to upgrade or buy Sonos kit in years. In some respects there are easier ways of doing stuff if just listening on one device. As I’ve got older my taste in music has changed so the desire to stream tracks has declined. There are also better value AV alternatives.
 

You have to wonder how much trouble Sonos are in if people aren’t upgrading and partly because  there are so many cheaper alternatives on the market now which do the job just as well. How much is this decision really down to technology or just an attempt to stimulate sales

if the graphic is correct then why would anyone replace a Play 5 gen 1 with a gen 2? You are looking at a paltry few years with the gen2. Obviously we all know what will go legacy next, but just look at the memory expansion on the one, Beam, etc, we are all doomed, and sadly so is Sonos. I saw this on the cards last year when they dropped the iPad dock and Ryan said we will keep the players going only just last year, effing shame. I think if macfarlane was still there he would have created an add-on to continue said products, Patrick Spence is ex-Blackburry, what happened to them lol

The direction this product is going stinks of Apple. Been thinking this for a few months.

I wouldn't be surprised if they re-branded sooner or later.

As one of the many consumers who invested and enjoyed the SONOS wireless speaker technology the recent announcement to EOL some of the hardware is not good news for me.

I understand the need to maintain a high level of customer audio experience with an evolving product line but there has to be a better way than alienating the original investors in your product.

The buzz kill that this incident has created will be very very difficult to recover from. If news stories on BBC or other outlets don’t damage your reputation the “word of mouth” most certainly will. 

SONOS was far from a perfect system but this incident has opened the field of competition to a whole host of alternative wireless speaker companies. Even Apple earpods are looking like a possibility now, since APPLE has learned how to perform software updates that won’t force you to buy a new device.

So, you lose about 20% of your Sonos investment per year and at the end of year 5 you have a worthless pile of environmentally expensive plastic and electronics. I have $5,000 invested in Sonos products, some of which will be legacy products in May 2020. I can only suppose the rest of my investment will be worthless soon since I was an early investor. I can’t even sell the units that aren’t currently on the legacy list given they will likely be worthless soon (whenever Sonos decides the time is right, I guess). This business model totally changes my opinion of Sonos; I certainly won’t recommend them to friends anymore. 

I spent thousands on Connect:Amp’s purchased from Sonos in April 2019.  That’s less than 10 months.  Now I’m hearing that these are no longer supported and I need to spend thousands more to “trade up”?  Do I understand that right?

Ryan S wrote:

our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

As another member stated, I will continue to believe this is a convenient lie until you provide some hard evidence to the contrary.

What is this really? We are talking about music playing through speakers. Your whole software architechture and direction is overly complex, not user friendly, and now clearly designed in a lazy, stupid or malicious way that enables planned obsolescence. 

There are so many clever people out there at so many innovative compoanies that create products designed to last a lifetime. It all comes down to simplicity and compatibility. Clearly this is not something you have considered as a design principle looking at your systems. 

It’s NOT OK to create premium products that should last a lifetime if cared for (audio products especially) that we should be able to pass onto our children, and have to throw them away and generate waste and perpetuate unstiansbale cyles of produciton and consumption. 

Why dont you just redesign your software, the components in the speakers are fine. They will be fine indefintiely if you design your software right. Your products dont “just work”. You make a mockery of your companys mission and vision. Anyone in a regional area with average internet connection will attest to the fact that you have hidden layers of authenticaion processes and such that hinder system setup, connectivity and clearly have some redicilous need for high powered internal speaker computing power. 

You need to learn how to do more with less. Simplicity. Basic principles. Streaming music is what people want. Innovate and create a better world.

Sonos deleted my thread that discussed this announcement and their overall software direction and unnecessary complexity. 

I outlined why this is happening and why it doesn’t need to happen. That really helped reassure me that I’m making the right decision getting rid of Sonos for good and advising all others to do the same. 

I’ll take my $4500 AUD back thank you. 

I wonder if there are Vegas odds on how many days it will take for the CEO of Sonos to be fired and the successor to announce a roll-back this insane policy? We were all such loyal fans and customers, at least until yesterday. Additionally Sonos never really had much competition -- until now! Apple Bose, and about 10 others are hot on their tail. “The main competitive standards to Sonos are Bose Music, DTS Play-Fi, built-in Google Chromecast, Yamaha MusicCast and Denon HEOS. Amazon's Echos also support the Amazon MRM system.”