End of Software Support - Clarifications

End of Software Support - Clarifications
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
  • Ryan S
  • Retired Sonos Staff
  • 12372 replies

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

C
Userlevel 2

Everybody should sign the petition here:

http://chng.it/jrkJMZDnpg
 

Sonos won’t care, but it will help stretch the bad news cycle out longer if it gets big and they do care about that. 

done

Signed thanks

A
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

What are some people reading that they think Sonos has changed anything at all?

The letter from the CEO was clearly a calculated position determined by the company and simply attributed to him, why else did it take so long for them to release.

It also doesn’t say anything new, at all.

They prefaced it with an empty apology and played “word shuffle” on the message, but nothing has changed.

C
Userlevel 2

Have Sonos just stopped reading this thread I take it?  Did they ever care?

I’m more annoyed now that I even bothered buying their products in the first place.  

A U-Turn is needed today or I’m selling this stuff off and buying some Bluesound or Audio Pro 

 

Can anyone recommend any other systems?  Would love B&O but obviously pricey 

L
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

Don’t just post here guys… 

 

ask questions on Amazon like ‘when will this be obsolescent, like Amos just made the rest of my kit?’

leve reviews on big retailer sites warning potential purchasers to be wary

i am doing this each time I have a few spare minutes.…

it is helping me deal with my anger as I am furious… I don’t want to be forced into having first 2 and then what 3? 4? Zones in my all zone household wide music system…! 

make them change this...

 

Don’t forget the app store reviews as well.

F
Userlevel 1

Sonos, would it not be the time to do the right thing. Open-source your software and close the shop. Not much left - is there?

  1. You pissed off your most loyal customers, likely the ones which have spend quite a lot of money on you over the years and were in the process of considering to upgrade
  2. You killed off your sustainability promise by producing speakers with an incredible short life span. You say there are computers. You are wrong. People have bought them as speakers and expected an unlimited life within reason. Your innovation has been tolerated as long as it does not impair the quality of the experience. Now it does.
  3. You killed off your green credentials with the landfill mode you ingeniously call “recycling mode”. A mode which turns an excellent speaker with years to go into a piece of environmentally damaging junk.
  4. You killed of the secondary market as nobody will risk buying a Sonos which may either be bricked already or soon is to be.
  5. You destroyed the very core of your business, the word of mouth, the trust people had in Sonos product. The longevity you once promised - they bough into it because that was the only reason that justified the premium price tag.
  6. You insulted customers by offering a pitiful trade up which sounds like a ransom demand.
  7. There is no trust left (see Amazon reviews or TrustPilot or read this forum)

No parent should see their children die, but you actually kill them. Close up, distribute the money amongst the people whom make this company what it is today. Let the shareholder pick up the bill which seem to have introduced the greed and shortsightedness.

Will you accept your punishment?

S
Userlevel 3

I have been a long term Sonos fan and feel betrayed, shocked and angered by the gall of this announcement.

i have a mix of sonos equipment and have been adding new components as I could afford to with previous plans to keep doing so for ever.

in one blunt email I’m now told that my multi room system that can play one single source in total synchronisation today, will not be able to from May!

Sonos has made a business decision to deliberately break my currently functional house-wide system with a promise to continue to break it further over time as currently functional products are designated by them as “legacy”.

I am extorted to spend more with them with the promise of wonderfully new features that I may break my system further in as little as 5 years!

( and by 5 years, they mean 5 years from manufacture - not purchase!)

Then a belated apology that confirms that come  May, I will no longer have an integrated multi audio system but a choice to continue to run 2 separate systems!!! WTF!!!

Almost every day listen to radio and music from multiple speakers grouped together in various combinations as I see fit. This is they key joy if Sonos.

if this is broken in May then I expect Sonos to fully replace at no cost to me, any component that cannot continue to operate in the same synchronised music group, exactly as it does now as one complete non segregated system.

if not, I believe a class action will be possible globally. 
 

 

 

 

 

M
Userlevel 1

I kind of accept that technology moves forward and sometimes older devices can’t get updated.  But what really p#sses me off is that Sonos think it’s totally okay to send millions of perfectly working Connect units to landfill.  Sonos : where are your environmental credentials?  I’d watch your back because Greta’s coming for you...

Rather than offering the paultry 30% discount, there should be the option of a paid hardware upgrade.  I think that would have been fair and I would have probably gone for that option.  This whole event was handled so incredibly badly.  it’s a total PR nightmare which has done the brand a lot of damage.

D

Actually, having seen the response from Patrick Spence, one thing is cleared up. He didn’t just make a mistake at the start of the week, it wasn’t a blunder by some junior marketing person. He really doesn’t care a jot about his customers.

I am wondering if there’s any way to let Sonos shareholders know that I will consider buying Sonos products again the day after he quits.

He is on Twitter so use that medium to contact him and maybe the shareholders.

F
Badge +1

To say this is disappointing from Sonos. is an understatement.

I was a big advocate for the brand but this ‘forced obsolescence’ move has given me serious pause for thought.

I’ve spent quite a bit on Sonos products over the last number of years including an old Play 5 model. I’m not as badly affected by this as some on here, but the loss of trust is the key issue for me.

I had plans to continue expanding an enhancing my system but now I’m not sure this would be wise. Will I get an email next year telling me my subwoofer or my playbar are obsolete too?

Also, 30% discount is a total joke.

I really hope Sonos reconsider what they are doing.

 

S
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Pick a product and leave 1 star review: Product obsolete within 5 years. Sonos stop supporting their products after 5 years!

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/reviews/consumer/form?pr_page_id=one&pr_merchant_id=411151&pr_api_key=cc48e875-2a83-4fb9-a513-164a041971fa&pr_merchant_group_id=14196

P
Userlevel 1

The most useful thing Sonos could do would be to suspend the May 2020 deadline for changing the support until the solution for ‘legacy’ products was defined, implemented and tested. I would also be helpful to be able to comment on the proposed solution before it was cast in stone.

P
Userlevel 3
Badge

An apology generally means that you realise you have done something wrong, you regret it and, crucially, you will either stop doing it, not do it again and make amends. 
 

The CEOs statement does none of these things and therefore it is not an apology. Instead it is a PR stunt and all the more insulting to loyal customers for that.
 

Before this debacle, they didn’t need to blow PR in my direction, I was a convert and evangelist for Sonos. Now, no PR in the world is going to make me buy another Sonos product or retain my system beyond the time it takes me to find and save for an alternative. 
 

Sonos is a business that has lost its way, bereft of ethics and decency, I don’t want to be associated with them any longer than I have to be. 

R
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Actually, having seen the response from Patrick Spence, one thing is cleared up. He didn’t just make a mistake at the start of the week, it wasn’t a blunder by some junior marketing person. He really doesn’t care a jot about his customers.

I am wondering if there’s any way to let Sonos shareholders know that I will consider buying Sonos products again the day after he quits.

He is on Twitter so use that medium to contact him and maybe the shareholders.

Dial in to the Sonos earnings call.  There is a Q&A session and callers and put questions directly to the CEO.    Everyone please dial in!  (and please repost this info - I think SONOS is deleting it when I post it here…. and I’m not on twitter or facebook so i can’t)

Feb. 5 at  5:00 p.m. Eastern Time

calling from inside US  (833) 236-2748, with conference ID 9666837.

calling from outside US  (647) 689-4173, with the same conference ID.

About Sonos

P
Userlevel 1

As a separate thought, if I were to replace a legacy component, I would like to donate the old product to a local primary school to meet a known need. This would be a far better solution than bricking and land fill.

S
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

Have Sonos just stopped reading this thread I take it?  Did they ever care?

I’m more annoyed now that I even bothered buying their products in the first place.  

A U-Turn is needed today or I’m selling this stuff off and buying some Bluesound or Audio Pro 

 

Can anyone recommend any other systems?  Would love B&O but obviously pricey 

I’m going to have a look at the yamaha today, I had the day off work to go shopping for a new beam, sub and 2 ones creating another 5.1 system in the second lounge after this week's debacle I'll be buying something else. 

I love the B&O, bowers and Wilkins stuff too but it's pricey fortunately I did make a few £ this week shorting sonos stock on announcement day so that will blunt the pain of whatever I buy. 
Today I realised that a UE megablast I impulse bought on primeday for £80 is as good as my one and I can take it anywhere even in the shower. So my portable needs are met just need a home system now.

P
Userlevel 5
Badge +1

The letter from the CEO changes nothing. No promise to update software to cope with streaming service API changes and no promise to maintain interoperability of all units.

I imagine Sonos spent a fortune on market research which told them that customers would like wizzo new features on new products. However, I bet the market researchers never said, “oh by the way you do realise that if we give you these new features we will stop supporting the basic functionality on any existing product more than a few years old”

L

I would love to be a fly on the wall in the boardroom when they decided this. What is the reasoning? I have been very happy with sonos the last 7 years. Not so much now, and I dont care if they reverse this. Bye Sonos!! (PS: I will send you a screenshot of my bluesound purschase)

M

Will stop recommending Sonos.

Of course i will still use my system. But i will never recommend Sonos again. I convinced 3 people to spend roughly 800€ each. Told them, that Sonos gets it. Thinks for the customers. Mixing in old stuff was key.  

U
Userlevel 6
Badge +4

I imagine Sonos spent a fortune on market research which told them that customers would like wizzo new features on new products. However, I bet the market researchers never said, “oh by the way you do realise that if we give you these new features we will stop supporting the basic functionality on any existing product more than a few years old”

What’s happened is that Sonos have started to panic about the fact that Google and Amazon are eating their market share in the whole house audio space.

Unfortunately, since nobody at Sonos has had an original product idea since the early 2000’s, the only thing they can think of is to do the same thing in reverse and try and incorporate all the features that Google and Amazon have, like voice control. Features that might be a nice to have, but are not why anyone bought Sonos in the first place.

What’s utterly baffling is how Sonos can be so bad at engineering that this current ‘write off the old stuff’ policy ever got any momentum. For most technology companies the idea of different but interoperable codebases would be so basic it wouldn’t even be a matter for discussion.

S
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Post a 1 star review

https://www.trustpilot.com/submitted/review?correlationid=04bead73-f601-411c-b979-7dcda11ab67b

W
Userlevel 2

Sonos is still selling the connect on its UK website… says nothing about how it is already obsolete…

 

nice one...!

 

sums them up re

It is only units made before 2015 which are end of life  - I thought my Connect/Connect Amp were going to be legacy but actually thankfully they are both showing as modern. Worth double checking that as the news isn’t clear about this.

 

For how long though that is the question

I bought my Connect Amp in August 2018, admittedly in a Sale from Richer Sounds in the UK, but it is identified as a legacy product in the e-mail I received.

H
Userlevel 2

To be honest, this may be a blessing in disguise. The actions from Sonos has gotten me to look closely at the market today, and it obviously has evolved quite a bit in the last 5 years.

Today I have the opportunity to (am forced to) replace my 6 Connect boxes with the Sonos Port replacement at a cost of $ 2’100 (with the 30% discount). My alternative, the Yamaha WXAD-10, which actually is more suited to my usage (and which allows for an easy way to shut off wifi and bluetooth) and appears to have a better DAC resulting in improved sound performance, would cost me $ 1’020 for the 6 units needed.

The decision here is quite simple! For much less than I paid when I bought the original Connects I can now get a brand new setup with more recent technology.

In any case, regardless of what Sonos does about this marketing blunder, I am moving away to an alternative solution. Thank you for the wake-up call!

L
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

An apology generally means that you realise you have done something wrong, you regret it and, crucially, you will either stop doing it, not do it again and make amends. 
 

The CEOs statement does none of these things and therefore it is not an apology. Instead it is a PR stunt and all the more insulting to loyal customers for that.
 

Except in this case the apology is for poorly communicating the approach they are taking, not for the approach itself. Classic corporate move

P
Badge

Sorry if this has been asked before.

What if I decide to put a modern product (anytime in the future) in a legacy system, is it then legacy forever or can I “restore factory settings” and put it in a modern system and receive updates?

P

For the legacy kit they just need to pick a single streaming service, and work with them for a solution. Keep the same functionality. There is no need to cater for all that they do. TuneIn radio and Spotify. Done. 

 

Do we know how Spotify connect will work with the legacy devices? Even if Spotify update their App you are still streaming the same amount of data? 

Yes Spotify update their services with song lyrics and videos. But from Spotify to Sonos we  still get what we always have. Music and album cover. 

For me it’s simple. In 5 years time I want my Sonos to work in the same way it did 5 years ago. I want to group the kitchen, garage and lounge original Play1 speakers. I want to play music through Spotify. If that means I can’t get new features, even on my newer SonosOne, such as Alexa voice control. That is just fine. 

It’s the control of the system, which is where I see the issues. But if they are suggesting a legacy App. Again that is just fine. 

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