As I recall, they stopped selling them in 2019, so the minimum amount of time would be 2024. And, of course, it might be longer, many of the soon to be legacy devices are well past 15 years old in design.

The key here is that it is less about time than it is about available memory and CPU. The time is just a manageable way about talking about this. 

Wow. As soon as that.  
I am just re evaluating this whole Sonos thing. It’s going to be a future of ‘upgrade or lose system’. Not what I joined for really. 

I agree from a technical point of view it’s about technical capabilities but as a customer it’s about time. I bought this stuff thinking that there may be improvements but i didn’t think I would lose my ‘single system’ if I did not repeatedly upgrade. 

You don't lose your system.  Certain players stop receiving updates. 

Please re-read the announcement. Or read it for the first time. 

It’s the same as any smart phone or computer you purchase. There’s only so much memory and processing power in the device. Each Sonos speaker has a computer inside it, albeit a small one. Much like I can’t run iOS 13 on my original iPhone, at some point the computer/memory in the Sonos will not be enough.

I will repeat, the five year time frame is a minimum, not a maximum. There’s no guaranty that the Sonos PLAY:3 will go into “legacy status” at that point, it is just the minimum amount of time that it ‘could’ possibly happen. 

And, as Sonos has stated, legacy products will still work, they just won’t receive all the newest updates. 

I did read the statement. But it did not actually say what you think it says. It says this:

We are working on a way to split your system 

But I need to understand what that actually means  

And after that Sonos customer support said this (the syntax does not give me confidence in the accuracy of the response):

After May, if you will keep legacy and modern device anther the same house hold, modern device will not be update so the device can work together as a one system.
Regarding update, we are keeping updates for minimum 5 years after stooping sales of the product on our website.

i have not amended or edited any of that. That’s what I received. 

I understand that phones get old. But if Sonos is now running on a phone model (upgrade every 18 months) then I want out. And I was an early adopter. 


 

That’s only half the truth though. The system will

also not receive any updates. It’s forcing an upgrade. 

I give up. If you are talking about Sonos going onto an 'eighteen month phone model' then you have so little grasp of reality there is no point trying to reason with you.  

 
you don’t lose it. But they won’t update it. The whole system goes in to legacy mode. That’s the problem with this. And that’s what I was told by customer support after the spence email. 

Please read opening post of this

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/end-of-software-support-clarifications-6835969

So why did you say you did?

Thanks John. I had read that. But you will see, as I did, that the following is ambiguous:

‘ and legacy products can still be used separately’ 

The idea of using Sonos products ‘separately’ is not the usual Sonos way. So I asked Sonos support, and I received the answer above. And that makes it clear:

‘After May, if you will keep legacy and modern device anther the same house hold, modern device will not be update so the device can work together as a one system.’

That I emphasise, John, was after the 2nd announcement and the Spence email. And if you read the announcement carefully it is not inconsistent with it. 
 

I agree 18 months iPhone model is an exaggeration. But I never anticipated any sort of ‘system effect’ on keeping ‘old’ Sonos products. So I am re evaluating.

Sorry, John, because I sense this is annoying you. But I think you have misunderstood the Sonos plan. It’s not just that your old units don’t get updates. It’s that the whole system gets no updates. So the whole system goes into an non-updated legacy mode. That’s the problem. And that’s why we will have to keep buying new hardware to keep the system up to date. So I’m looking at what will be the next ‘legacy’ and it’s the Play:3.

If you stream Deezer/ Spotify etc and have a Legacy system you're on borrowed time hoping they don't alter alter their protocols (no update from Sonos for that..).

I doubt many will opt for the split system.

The Play:1 is well down the pecking order memory wise so probably next on the chopping block..

Thanks, Keith. 
More food for thought as I have more of the 1st gen Play:1s than Play:3s. 
Sonos has really done us over. 

I believe it’s five years from when they stop manufacturing them.  Someone in the announcement thread said they bought a connect or play 5 brand new a year ago, and it’s now going legacy.  From a sonos dealer.

I assume it really has less to do with either when it was manufactured and/or sold, and much more to do with the amount of memory in it, and the size of the memory Sonos needs to use to run the ‘latest’ features.
 

Which is why all the original devices, now marked as ‘legacy’, have been functional since Sonos was released in 2005. All of these devices marked as ‘legacy’ have a measly 32Meg of memory, but have been kept current until this upcoming May.

My assumption is that Sonos is going to continue to do everything possible, as they have previously, in order to keep from doing another round like this. However, there are limits, much like in smart phones, as to how much you can cram in to this restricted memory.

This all wouldn’t be happening if these were simple speakers that didn’t have computers in them. But then they wouldn’t be what we purchased, either. 

Is there a list handy somewhere of which devices have what amounts of memory?  

Yeah, this is where i call bs on Sonos…..if you cry your hardware limitations as a reason given how technology innovates with requirements...how can you say you support minimum of 5 years if you have NO control of future requirements but yet you do with the 5 year support.

It's not BS, it's legalese.  In some jurisdictions, companies are required by law to support products for 5 years after last manufactured.  So Sonos is pledging that because they have to.  In all honesty, it took 15 years to blow through 32 MB, so code bloat tendencies aside, Sonos has a lot of experience squeezing every last bit of function out of every MB.  So I expect a lot longer than 5 years, even for the oldest non-legacy units.

https://en.community.sonos.com/advanced-setups-229000/updated-memory-graphic-6836345