End of Software Support - Clarifications

Agreed!!! 

And I do kindof believe they’ve largely done their best on this. I think those people saying they should have stuck more memory in the components or made the software more flexible are forgetting how different Sonos was at launch (pre smartphone apps, probably pre streaming services at all?) and that the memory cost alot more ten years ago. I’d also argue it probably isn’t a entirely sustainable business model even if the hardware can cope with more updates. 
 

Where they’ve hugely messed up is the messaging, the short period of notice, the lack of details (though Ryan has been helpful) and just making people feel that both their legacy system and the brand they’ve supported have become tarnished over night. 

I am not convinced they’ve “done their best” on this…. software can be changed, architecture can be modified. They have had years and years to fix this… and yet here we are… that’s not a definition of “doing your best”.

And worst of all this is all fixable - thin clients anyone?

The Sonos promise has always had two parts - you can buy in now with a grouping of say a couple of speakers and add more later, plus what you buy today will be supported tomorrow.

Both of these promises are now broken - what we bought previously is no longer supported and what we bought previously cannot be grouped with newer speakers without losing updates / support of the newer kit.

Seriously does anyone think it would be reasonable for Apple to say if you keep using your old smartphone at home we will not give you any updates/support for you new phone?

How long ‘till the next cull - what dies next - play:1 play:3 ?????

How can you invest £££££ $$$$$ in kit with such short life - HiFi is not disposable it is not cheap!!

In fact it is not unusual to completely re-architect and re-write software every now and then I have worked on several ground up rewrites. They tend to be big pieces of work, but the ones I have involved in have been fairly smooth - mainly because you have a concrete definition of what you need to replicate plus a vision of how you want the new architecture to work. 

A move to master units (the newer more capable units) and slave devices (legacy units) could be delivered and keep the legacy units in play for the future whilst allowing future deliverables via the newer units. 

Its really a question of whether you want to do it and have the drive and commitment to do it

Had my play3 & play5 (gen 2) less than 2 years.

Although I’m not affected by these changes at the moment, l feel Sonos have cheapened the brand with this announcement & in turn broken all trust in the Sonos brand.

They may or may not be interested in the fact there are a lot of very pissed off Sonos owners, 

I for one will be watching closely what they do next .

If it is not resolved satisfactorily, I am done with Sonos & all streaming speakers that can be so easily be trashed by manufacturers .

It is quite obvious that Sonos is not very interested in what is being discussed in this forum:

• So far there has been plenty of opportunities to bid in with something that would explain, repair, compensate, or perhaps just show some compassion. But nothing really appeared.
• Some indications have been given that Sonos sometimes does show a a lot of or at least some interest in those customers who write to their support, but that doesn’t cover “a lot of...owners”.
• Rumours tell that they all are fully occupied with this matter, but they are clearly simultaneously maintaining a stiff upper lip in combination with radio silence.

Seems like “watching closely” will be as exciting as watching a silent pantomime version of the Blair Witch Project.

I would give them till the end of the business week to make another response about what they are doing based off customer feedback. If they sit it out all of this week then I’d say they’ve made up their mind and will still move forward with their currently plan.

Sounds like Sonos customers without registered legacy sets did not get sent the email or the ‘clarification’ and otherwise have no idea that Sonos just buried themselves last week.

Yes.  I did not receive the notices as all my products are modern.  Had i not seen some youtube videos i would be completely unaware of what is going on.  I guess we can look at this two ways.  One, they didnt want to unnecessarily worry unaffected customers.  Two, they would rather keep the issue hidden from new customers.  I guess which one we believe is closely related to whether we believe management actually cares about their customers or not.

To say I’m disappointed is an understatement to be honest. I to have spent well in excess of over £2500 over the last 4 years adding to my Sonos system thinking that this will be supported for many years to come unlike others that have tried to compete with your products and now you turn round and say my Play 5 is no longer going to be supported (bare in mind it was replaced only in 2017 because of a fault so is basically just over 2 years old) and you offer a measly 30% discount!!!!!! I expected a lot more from you Sonos to be perfectly honest, I’m loosing faith in your products but what do you care……..you have my money now 🤬🤬🤬🤬 

As of right now if I was looking at buying any Sonos speaker new or 2nd hand I would avoid any Sonos speaker that doesn’t have Airplay 2 compatibility. The fact the current Playbar and only recently discontinued Play 3 and Play 1 units don’t have Airplay means they are likely running close to their potential already.

I’ve read through most of the 4,000 posts from the closed thread in addition to this one; you have to wonder if anyone but Ryan from Sonos has.  Consequently, it’s unlikely I’m going to add anything new with this post, but here goes.

What really burns is that many who defend or sympathize with Sonos’ position, analogize their products as computer hardware with audio components rather than as speakers with technological components allowing them to stream audio sources and sync with one another.  This difference isn’t (wasn't) obvious to me and probably most Sonos owners until the May Doomsday email.  As many have replied, the “legacy” Sonos devices are not cellphones, laptops, streaming boxes for tv, routers, etc. that need replacement or upgrades as a result of needed or wanted increased speed, resolution, or bandwidth.  And as has been stated before, Sonos buyers typically have numerous devices to play audio throughout their homes; how many cellphones, laptops, etc. does one typically own?

The Play 5 was priced higher than the 3 and the 1 because of the improved audio components and sound quality, not because the tech among the 3 devices was vastly different.  Why would the average consumer think that their devices would stop doing what they’ve always done? It’s unreasonable for most owners to have thought that streaming audio would become so advanced that they’d have to upgrade “speakers” that still work and sound great.  Especially when the company never issued the disclaimer on their products, advertisements, or terms of service that updates or support will end in 5 years from their introduction.  I guess they hid that from me and I was fooled, mislead, naive, tech challenged, or just plain dumb.  I do know that I’m disappointed and disillusioned barring a change of heart and course from Sonos.

@snpanago :I am willing to give good odds that it is just Ryan and you. I have probably managed 10-20%.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/01/sonos-to-stop-updating-old-products---what-you-need-to-know/?utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=28-Jan-20-50592799-1379&utm_campaign=nt-moneysavingnews&utm_content=2

I agree with @kumar.  You are probably malone with poor old Ryan!

My question to you - were there are further clarifications from Sonos buried in all those posts?  I'm working on the basis that I will hold onto my Connect and three Play 1s for the time being.  I won't be doing any trade ups or buying any more Sonos speakers at least until I see how things play out in May and afterwards.  Did you see anything that would indicate that I'm taking the wrong approach?  I'm not asking you to be my adviser, just curious. Thanks. 

This thread is ….. fascinating. 

This is a watershed moment for Sonos.

They COULD invest in producing a "Media Hub" that takes over all the heavy duty processing and streams to the Legacy and current kit "Whole Home".

Maybe give this Hub a 5 year self life instead of the whole system?.

They could save face and go some way to repairing the ill will between probably hundreds of thousands of customers.

I still cannot believe how badly this has all been handled and and it's a real shame for ALL Sonos system owners.

If they hand all the Legacy owners out to dry in May then I won't be investing in any more kit personally because 5 years support is nit long enough for the price of these "Premium" speakers imho..

Irrespective of any further information there may have been,  'wait and see' seems an entirely sensible approach. It may be that even 2 or 3 years after May people in legacy mode will find their Sonos experience is pretty much the same as now. Of course that is not guaranteed and it isn't what everyone wants.  But it sounds like whatever options are available come May,  they will continue to be available into the future.

Mimimum 5 years from discontinuance date. Given its recent launch and the vastly increased memory in a One compared with the units now going into legacy, I would happily buy a One tomorrow expectimg it to be fully supported for at least 10 years, probably much more. If others feel differently that is their business. But this presentation of a norm of 5 years life is a complete misrepresentation of the reality. 

I understand the anger at the original announcement (and I have a Bridge and a Connect that are affected by it), but I have to confess that I don’t understand the continuing anger now. Sonos have said that legacy products will continue to be supported for as long as possible, but that they won’t get new features due to the limitations of the hardware. This seems like a pretty reasonable stance to me.

They deserve criticism for misreading the lay of the land, but equally they deserve some credit for responding quickly with a reasonable compromise.

Sonos actually said from the start that legacy devices would not get updates (and nor would other speakers if you chose legacy mode) but would continue to be usable.  What do you think they said?

Sorry, yes, I wasn’t clear. The problem was the “if you have any legacy products, none of your products will receive updates” thing. The compromise was that Sonos will provide a way of allowing legacy and modern products to co-exist, but allow the modern products to receive new features.

You need to brush up on your reading comprehension if you think there's been any sort of "compromise". My apologies, but all of the responses I've seen here, and received via multiple emails, have said the exact same thing. Sonos clearly does not value those of us who have been here since the beginning. They seem to be standing their ground on this betrayal of trust, as such, I will stand by my promise to never buy their products again and will go above and beyond to help my friends and family avoid making the same mistake I did. It was fun while it lasted, but I prefer to support companies with at least a little bit of integrity.

Exactly. It isn’t what everyone wants, but it is what quite a number do. Frankly, since buying into Sonos initially I can think of very little by way of added features that were something I was looking forward or genuinely excited about. There have been subtle updates and integrations that were pleasing (support for Sonos control within the Pandora Premium app has been my only “followed” development  of the past few years), but all of these came with periods of Controller issues and some unwelcome changes and plenty of hiccups and problems along the way. Even my Sonos One, which I purchased at launch, on a whim partially because it was able to provide integration for both Google Assistant as well as Alexa (reportedly at launch - as most know, the Google side didn’t come for well over full year later which was quite frustrating), but most because it was newer and priced the same as a PLay:1 which is what I was in the market for at that time. (Looking at the memory/storage configurations of Play:1 and ONE now, I’m glad I made that choice, but not for the reasons I thought at the time) The voice integration seemed like an interesting novelty to play with. That’s pretty much it. I really just wanted another “Sonos” speaker.
At the end of the day(s), my Sonos system did (has done) what I bought it to do and the core of what I bought it to do was play music in selected zones from a central app experience. That’s it. And that’s all I want it to do now when it comes down to it. Legacy is a-ok with me if that’s the path needed. Even if I purchase only 2nd hand legacy devices for whenever I may want to expand it further, that’s fine as well. As long as it does what I bought it to do. Sounds like it will.