Do not buy from Sonos

  • 8 February 2020
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‘Nobody in practice is going to have to replace all their Sonos gear every five years, or anything like it’

I made that statement and stand by it.  For this to happen to anyone, they would have to buy their speakers on the last day of sale of each type they had, and Sonos would have to support the speakers for the absolute minimum they have guaranteed.  And then repeat the trick every five years.  Yes that is theoretically possible but I said that in practice it won’t happen.  This idea that people can only expect five years use from purchase is utter rubbish.  People peddling that nonsense are ignoring the nature of the promise (from discontinued sale of the product type), the fact that it is a minimum guarantee that Sonos hope to exceed, and the huge increase in memory in most current products compared with the products shortly becoming legacy.

I don’t take back a word.

Edit: and the fact that even after updates stop the speakers are still usable.

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Connect:Amps and Connects are no longer being sold, which is what I meant by “current devices”.  Sorry if I was not clear on that, but yes, my point does stand.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Sonos-Connect-Component-Streaming-certified/dp/B001CROHX6

 

The people who purchase these may be in for a surprise in the not too distant future.

 

The part of your point that Sonos may be able to keep updates going longer than 5 years because of increased RAM in newer devices still stands, but it still doesn’t guarantee anything.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Sonos-Connect-Component-Streaming-certified/dp/B001CROHX6

 

The people who purchase these may be in for a surprise in the not too distant future.

 

Sonos has no control over what a retailer does with their old stock.  But yes, anyone buying long discontinued modern electronics are the poster children for the phrase caveat emptor.

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Connect:Amps and Connects are no longer being sold, which is what I meant by “current devices”.  Sorry if I was not clear on that, but yes, my point does stand.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Sonos-Connect-Component-Streaming-certified/dp/B001CROHX6

 

The people who purchase these may be in for a surprise in the not too distant future.

There are other products besides the sub that also have 64MB ram (some of the Connect:AMPs and Connects) that are not going into legacy come May. So, yes, your point still stands as being incorrect.

 

Connect:Amps and Connects are no longer being sold, which is what I meant by “current devices”.  Sorry if I was not clear on that, but yes, my point does stand.

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Your statement, “Nobody in practice is going to have to replace all their Sonos gear every five years, or anything like it.” could absolutely be untrue. 5 years from tomorrow, all current devices could be transitioned to legacy and Sonos would be able to say that made a statement that this was possible and didn’t give anyone a reason to believe they would support devices longer than 5 years. They would be entirely correct.

My only issue is you making this statement like it is fact when it is only your “educated” guess and you should acknowledge it as so.

Everything is information. I never claimed we didn’t have information. What kind of statement is that? I said that we don’t have information that guarantees that devices will be able to stream longer than 5 years. What Sonos did with their first components does not guarantee anything moving forward. Expectations have changed them they decided to put out a their Legacy statement. “Past performance is not guarantee of future results”.

 

To the bolded - I never said anything of the sort.  It’s not “(my) statement”, you’ve mixed me up with someone else.   

My mistake and I apologize about the mix up. That obviously should not have been direct to you.

Your statement, “Nobody in practice is going to have to replace all their Sonos gear every five years, or anything like it.” could absolutely be untrue. 5 years from tomorrow, all current devices could be transitioned to legacy and Sonos would be able to say that made a statement that this was possible and didn’t give anyone a reason to believe they would support devices longer than 5 years. They would be entirely correct.

My only issue is you making this statement like it is fact when it is only your “educated” guess and you should acknowledge it as so.

Everything is information. I never claimed we didn’t have information. What kind of statement is that? I said that we don’t have information that guarantees that devices will be able to stream longer than 5 years. What Sonos did with their first components does not guarantee anything moving forward. Expectations have changed them they decided to put out a their Legacy statement. “Past performance is not guarantee of future results”.

 

To the bolded - I never said anything of the sort.  It’s not “(my) statement”, you’ve mixed me up with someone else.   

 

here are other products besides the sub that also have 64MB ram (some of the Connect:AMPs and Connects) that are not going into legacy come May. So, yes, your point still stands as being incorrect.

 

Connect:Amps and Connects are no longer being sold, which is what I meant by “current devices”.  Sorry if I was not clear on that, but yes, my point does stand.

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None of the information you provided makes your statements any more true. You are making at best educated guesses based on this information and thus your should state your opinion as such, not as a statement of fact. I have no problem with your opinion. It very well may come to pass as being correct, but we have no statements from Sonos that it will be. Not all current devices have 16-32 times the RAM and storage of the legacy devices. Some only have double the memory.

 

Yet it is information, something you claimed we didn’t have, and I never claimed my statements to be true. However, I did back up my statements with facts, facts you willfully chose to ignore, citing only those that paint Sonos in a bad light.  Sorry, I'm not so quick to wield that brush in the face of other, just as relevant evidence.

And yes, the Sub is an older product that has 64 MB.  The Sub is a special case (not really a smart speaker, only plays a single stream from a master device).  A couple others only have 4 to 8 times.  My mistake.   Still multiple times the legacy 32 MB that sustained some devices for 15+ years, so my point stands.

Your statement, “Nobody in practice is going to have to replace all their Sonos gear every five years, or anything like it.” could absolutely be untrue. 5 years from tomorrow, all current devices could be transitioned to legacy and Sonos would be able to say that made a statement that this was possible and didn’t give anyone a reason to believe they would support devices longer than 5 years. They would be entirely correct.

My only issue is you making this statement like it is fact when it is only your “educated” guess and you should acknowledge it as so.

Everything is information. I never claimed we didn’t have information. What kind of statement is that? I said that we don’t have information that guarantees that devices will be able to stream longer than 5 years. What Sonos did with their first components does not guarantee anything moving forward. Expectations have changed them they decided to put out a their Legacy statement. “Past performance is not guarantee of future results”.

 

There are other products besides the sub that also have 64MB ram (some of the Connect:AMPs and Connects) that are not going into legacy come May. So, yes, your point still stands as being incorrect. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but your tendency to state factually incorrect information along with stating your opinion as fact makes reading the thread difficult and potentially misleading.

 

 

 

None of the information you provided makes your statements any more true. You are making at best educated guesses based on this information and thus your should state your opinion as such, not as a statement of fact. I have no problem with your opinion. It very well may come to pass as being correct, but we have no statements from Sonos that it will be. Not all current devices have 16-32 times the RAM and storage of the legacy devices. Some only have double the memory.

 

Yet it is information, something you claimed we didn’t have, and I never claimed my statements to be true. However, I did back up my statements with facts, facts you willfully chose to ignore, citing only those that paint Sonos in a bad light.  Sorry, I'm not so quick to wield that brush in the face of other, just as relevant evidence.

And yes, the Sub is an older product that has 64 MB.  The Sub is a special case (not really a smart speaker, only plays a single stream from a master device).  A couple others only have 4 to 8 times.  My mistake.   Still multiple times the legacy 32 MB that sustained some devices for 15+ years, so my point stands.

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Yes, and consumers should take advice that buying products that have stopped production will have a shorter life.  And Sonos needs to make sure they clearly mark hardware changes in their products.  A mistake I think they have learned.  And again, this only apples to some of the legacy products, since most stop production longer than 5 years ago.

I haven’t seen any indication that Sonos has learned from their mistake. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they mark their products with dates with wording that clearly explains the life expectancy or guaranteed updates. 

We don’t know how often streaming music services get interrupted by code changes requiring Sonos to make updates in response.

 

 

We don’t know, but we have an idea of the probability.

 

Yes, and it’s very probable that within the last 12 months both Spotify and particularly Pandora would have been broken. Pandora would have when they introduced the new tree that includes “my music” and split their service into Pandora one, plus, etc.

 

I’ve stated in other threads that I don’t think that updates can’t be expected in perpetuity, but I think that 5 years is too short. I have also stated that I personally would be willing to pay for ongoing updates that would keep my devices able to stream music services. I think this is a valuable service and would be willing to pay for it. I don’t believe the excuse that there isn’t enough RAM in legacy hardware to continue to do this. I have always understood and never expected that new features would become available to my devices. It has been a pleasant and unexpected surprise that I can now control my zones with a voice assistant.

I’m not here to bash Sonos. I don’t think they are making a good business decision, but only time will tell. I used to be a very big Sonos supporter, but simply can no longer recommend them at this point based on their statement and lack of clarity. Sure, I could tell someone anonymously on the internet that I love Sonos, but if a close friend or family member asked me what they should buy, I’d have to strongly caution them about the potential for a limited lifespan. While other companies such as Bluesound may end up doing something similar, they haven’t yet and until they do, I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Sonos has already burned some of its customer base with this decision. Fool me once and all...

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I’m not sure why people keep making statements that reflect what they want to be true as if they were the truth. The only information we have is that Sonos will only commit to updates for 5 years from when a device is last manufactured. 

 

No, that is not the only information we have.  We also have the fact that Sonos supported some units for over 15 years from launch and over a decade from last manufacture.  We also know that all current legacy devices have the same 32 MB of RAM and storage, meaning that particular configuration was good for over 15 years of service.  In addition, we know all current Sonos devices have 16 to 32 times that in RAM and storage.  Therefore, while 5 years is what they have to state in some jurisdictions, the capability for far more years of support is there, and Sonos seems to have built that capability into currently sold products to the tune of 16 to 32 times the resources of the just now made legacy units.

Make of that what you will, but that is far more information than “Sonos will only commit to updates for 5 years from when a device is last manufactured”.  

 

None of the information you provided makes your statements any more true. You are making at best educated guesses based on this information and thus you should state your opinion as such, not as a statement of fact. I have no problem with your opinion. We are all entitled to our own. It very well may come to pass as being correct, but we have no statements from Sonos to support it.

Not all current devices have 16-32 times the RAM and storage of the legacy devices. Some only have double the memory (64MB).

Nobody in practice is going to have to replace all their Sonos gear every five years, or anything like it.  We don’t need analogies to say that.  You don’t even need to replace any of your gear now.

I’m not sure why people keep making statements that reflect what they want to be true as if they were the truth.

 

 

Ok, yes, it’s possible that someone could happen to buy all the wrong speakers at all the wrong time for various reasons.  But is that a highly likely scenario?  No, not really.

 

The only information we have is that Sonos will only commit to updates for 5 years from when a device is last manufactured.

 

 

How does that guarantee match up with Sonos competitors?  I honestly don’t know.

 

Sonos devices may be sold through authorized retailers beyond this period of time for quite some time (as has happened to many people on these forums who have only owned their devices for a few years and will have legacy devices come May).

 

 

Yes, and consumers should take advice that buying products that have stopped production will have a shorter life.  And Sonos needs to make sure they clearly mark hardware changes in their products.  A mistake I think they have learned.  And again, this only apples to some of the legacy products, since most stop production longer than 5 years ago.

 

We don’t know how often streaming music services get interrupted by code changes requiring Sonos to make updates in response.

 

 

We don’t know, but we have an idea of the probability.

 

So, while you and I would both like to think that these features will continue to work for a long period outside of the 5 years, neither one of us has any guarantee that this will be the case. So, in practice, we all very well may need to replace all of our gear every 5 years if we want our devices to continue to work with services like Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, etc. Maybe it will be longer. I’m not sure where I’d be satisfied personally. I think 10 years would do it, but that's probably a little too unrealistic/ambitious.

It’s matter of probability.    Yes, it is possible that I could buy a Sonos Beam today, it gets discontinued tomorrow, Sonos ends updates 5 years from now, and a streaming service changes it’s coding in 5 years plus a day….but that’s extremely unlikely.  Even going with an older product, like the playbar, the odds are that it will go much longer than 5 years,  Production may end soon, but it has signficantly more memory than the current legacy products.

 

But these products will not last forever, and not as long as ‘dumb’ traditional speakers.  If that’s more what you’re looking for then that is what you should be getting.

I’m not sure why people keep making statements that reflect what they want to be true as if they were the truth. The only information we have is that Sonos will only commit to updates for 5 years from when a device is last manufactured. 

 

No, that is not the only information we have.  We also have the fact that Sonos supported some units for over 15 years from launch and over a decade from last manufacture.  We also know that all current legacy devices have the same 32 MB of RAM and storage, meaning that particular configuration was good for over 15 years of service.  In addition, we know all current Sonos devices have 16 to 32 times that in RAM and storage.  Therefore, while 5 years is what they have to state in some jurisdictions, the capability for far more years of support is there, and Sonos seems to have built that capability into currently sold products to the tune of 16 to 32 times the resources of the just now made legacy units.

Make of that what you will, but that is far more information than “Sonos will only commit to updates for 5 years from when a device is last manufactured”.  

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Nobody in practice is going to have to replace all their Sonos gear every five years, or anything like it.  We don’t need analogies to say that.  You don’t even need to replace any of your gear now.

I’m not sure why people keep making statements that reflect what they want to be true as if they were the truth. The only information we have is that Sonos will only commit to updates for 5 years from when a device is last manufactured. Sonos devices may be sold through authorized retailers beyond this period of time for quite some time (as has happened to many people on these forums who have only owned their devices for a few years and will have legacy devices come May). We don’t know how often streaming music services get interrupted by code changes requiring Sonos to make updates in response. So, while you and I would both like to think that these features will continue to work for a long period outside of the 5 years, neither one of us has any guarantee that this will be the case. So, in practice, we all very well may need to replace all of our gear every 5 years if we want our devices to continue to work with services like Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, etc. Maybe it will be longer. I’m not sure where I’d be satisfied personally. I think 10 years would do it, but that's probably a little too unrealistic/ambitious.

Nobody in practice is going to have to replace all their Sonos gear every five years, or anything like it.  We don’t need analogies to say that.  You don’t even need to replace any of your gear now.

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I’ve been with Sonos from about the beginning and I have to say I’m pretty happy over-all in the way we have been treated. I never expected my 2006 ZPs to still be working in 2020 and beyond, figured they like any other computerized device I owned back then and if I got five good years it was good.

I never made the error of comparing my Sonos to my conventional speakers or even my dumb stereo gear, they are just too different.

Looking back at 2006, my Sonos gear was the last surviving equipment, TVs, computers, Smart AV gear, and a bunch of other electronic devices went out the door while the Sonos just kept plugging along. The old Sonos didn’t get replaced for being obsolete either, it got replaced because the newer Sonos gear was so good I couldn’t resist the trade-up deal.

I cannot even count how many $1000+ phones I have purchased since 2006.  You dont dont see people fuming over Apple disco'ing devices; they just buy new ones.  Apple has a trade up program just like Sonos for this very reason.  It is a closed ecosystem.

My software company has a mobile app that is constantly evolving.  We support current versions of Android and iOS, plus 2 older.  This means that your phone has to be able to support 2 year old software.  Generally this means that the hardware is no more than 5-7 years old.  This is standard practice in the IoT age.  The fact that Sonos has continued on this long and can continue to provide updates to very old devices is actually a testament to the brand.  Every smart device dies.  If you want speakers that never will, then dont buy Sonos or any other smart speaker... And move on.

Similarly, if you simply cannot give access to Location Services to allow your smart devices to configure themselves, then buy dumb devices and a tighter tinfoil hat.

New tech is coming out all the time.  A few years back they killed off CDMA where I live.  So everyone rolling around with an archaic flip phone had to get with the times or not be on cellular.  It happens...  **** evolves.

You are buying an internet connected, smart assistant powered, streaming service embedded, whole home audio product.  That is arguably the best there is.  If you want to stick with the Golden Age, then get a NAS and unplug yourself from the internet.  Otherwise, embrace technology and how it changes and keep your expectations in check.

 

 

There are very, very few apples to apples comparisons here (no pun intended). Your comparison definitely breaks down for people who have many Sonos devices. I have over 20 (and used to have over 30). So, if you’d be OK with losing support for something like texting (I’m going to make the analogy of streaming music services being like texting on a phone), after 5 years, but having 20 phones you need to replace, let us know. I’m not OK with that. Sonos is free to do whatever they want of course, it just that they may be losing an element of their business that they previously really had a strong ownership of and that is whole home or whole office audio. Having to replace 20 or more units every 5 years (possibly), with a 30% trade-in value is going to give a lot of people pause. I can afford it. I feel fortunate, that this type of expenditure would not really make much of a dent in my bank account, but I just don’t like to throw money away frivolously and can’t justify the ongoing expense based on principle.

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I’ve been with Sonos from about the beginning and I have to say I’m pretty happy over-all in the way we have been treated. I never expected my 2006 ZPs to still be working in 2020 and beyond, figured they like any other computerized device I owned back then and if I got five good years it was good.

I never made the error of comparing my Sonos to my conventional speakers or even my dumb stereo gear, they are just too different.

Looking back at 2006, my Sonos gear was the last surviving equipment, TVs, computers, Smart AV gear, and a bunch of other electronic devices went out the door while the Sonos just kept plugging along. The old Sonos didn’t get replaced for being obsolete either, it got replaced because the newer Sonos gear was so good I couldn’t resist the trade-up deal.

I cannot even count how many $1000+ phones I have purchased since 2006.  You dont dont see people fuming over Apple disco'ing devices; they just buy new ones.  Apple doesnt even have a trade up program.

My company has a mobike app that is constantly evolving.  We support current versions of Android and iOS, us 2 older.  This means that your phone has to be able to support 2 year old software.  Generally this means that the hardware is no more than 5-7 years old.  This is standard practice in the IoT age.  The fact that Sonos has continued on this long and can continue to provide updates to very old devices is actually a testament to the brand.  Every snart device dies.  If you want speakers that never will, then dont buy Sonos or any other smart speaker... And move on.

Similarly, if you simply cannot give access to Location Services to allow your smart devices to configure themselves, then buy dumb devices and a tighter tinfoil hat.

New tech is coming out all the time.  A few years back they killed off CDMA where I live.  So everyone rolling around with an archaic flip phone had to get with the times or not be on cellular.  It happens...  **** evolves.

You are buying an internet connected, smart assistant powered, streaming service embedded, whole home audio product.  That is arguably the best there is.  If you want to stick with the Golden Age, then get a NAS and unplug yourself from the internet.  Otherwise, embrace technology and how it changes and keep your expectations in check.

 

 

So much wrong with this post. I'll just do the simple one..

https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in

I meant Android and/or Samsung.  Post fixed.

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I’ve been with Sonos from about the beginning and I have to say I’m pretty happy over-all in the way we have been treated. I never expected my 2006 ZPs to still be working in 2020 and beyond, figured they like any other computerized device I owned back then and if I got five good years it was good.

I never made the error of comparing my Sonos to my conventional speakers or even my dumb stereo gear, they are just too different.

Looking back at 2006, my Sonos gear was the last surviving equipment, TVs, computers, Smart AV gear, and a bunch of other electronic devices went out the door while the Sonos just kept plugging along. The old Sonos didn’t get replaced for being obsolete either, it got replaced because the newer Sonos gear was so good I couldn’t resist the trade-up deal.

I cannot even count how many $1000+ phones I have purchased since 2006.  You dont dont see people fuming over Apple disco'ing devices; they just buy new ones.  Apple doesnt even have a trade up program.

My company has a mobike app that is constantly evolving.  We support current versions of Android and iOS, us 2 older.  This means that your phone has to be able to support 2 year old software.  Generally this means that the hardware is no more than 5-7 years old.  This is standard practice in the IoT age.  The fact that Sonos has continued on this long and can continue to provide updates to very old devices is actually a testament to the brand.  Every snart device dies.  If you want speakers that never will, then dont buy Sonos or any other smart speaker... And move on.

Similarly, if you simply cannot give access to Location Services to allow your smart devices to configure themselves, then buy dumb devices and a tighter tinfoil hat.

New tech is coming out all the time.  A few years back they killed off CDMA where I live.  So everyone rolling around with an archaic flip phone had to get with the times or not be on cellular.  It happens...  **** evolves.

You are buying an internet connected, smart assistant powered, streaming service embedded, whole home audio product.  That is arguably the best there is.  If you want to stick with the Golden Age, then get a NAS and unplug yourself from the internet.  Otherwise, embrace technology and how it changes and keep your expectations in check.

 

 

So much wrong with this post. I'll just do the simple one..

https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in

Badge

I’ve been with Sonos from about the beginning and I have to say I’m pretty happy over-all in the way we have been treated. I never expected my 2006 ZPs to still be working in 2020 and beyond, figured they like any other computerized device I owned back then and if I got five good years it was good.

I never made the error of comparing my Sonos to my conventional speakers or even my dumb stereo gear, they are just too different.

Looking back at 2006, my Sonos gear was the last surviving equipment, TVs, computers, Smart AV gear, and a bunch of other electronic devices went out the door while the Sonos just kept plugging along. The old Sonos didn’t get replaced for being obsolete either, it got replaced because the newer Sonos gear was so good I couldn’t resist the trade-up deal.

I cannot even count how many $1000+ phones I have purchased since 2006.  You dont dont see people fuming over Apple disco'ing devices; they just buy new ones.  Apple has a trade up program just like Sonos for this very reason.  It is a closed ecosystem.

My software company has a mobile app that is constantly evolving.  We support current versions of Android and iOS, plus 2 older.  This means that your phone has to be able to support 2 year old software.  Generally this means that the hardware is no more than 5-7 years old.  This is standard practice in the IoT age.  The fact that Sonos has continued on this long and can continue to provide updates to very old devices is actually a testament to the brand.  Every smart device dies.  If you want speakers that never will, then dont buy Sonos or any other smart speaker... And move on.

Similarly, if you simply cannot give access to Location Services to allow your smart devices to configure themselves, then buy dumb devices and a tighter tinfoil hat.

New tech is coming out all the time.  A few years back they killed off CDMA where I live.  So everyone rolling around with an archaic flip phone had to get with the times or not be on cellular.  It happens...  **** evolves.

You are buying an internet connected, smart assistant powered, streaming service embedded, whole home audio product.  That is arguably the best there is.  If you want to stick with the Golden Age, then get a NAS and unplug yourself from the internet.  Otherwise, embrace technology and how it changes and keep your expectations in check.

 

 

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I’ve been with Sonos from about the beginning and I have to say I’m pretty happy over-all in the way we have been treated. I never expected my 2006 ZPs to still be working in 2020 and beyond, figured they like any other computerized device I owned back then and if I got five good years it was good.

I never made the error of comparing my Sonos to my conventional speakers or even my dumb stereo gear, they are just too different.

Looking back at 2006, my Sonos gear was the last surviving equipment, TVs, computers, Smart AV gear, and a bunch of other electronic devices went out the door while the Sonos just kept plugging along. The old Sonos didn’t get replaced for being obsolete either, it got replaced because the newer Sonos gear was so good I couldn’t resist the trade-up deal.

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How is it a misrepresentation that if you rely on streaming music services and this deprecates after 5 years, you will need to “re-invest” to continue to make it work with streaming music services. You are purposely misleading potential readers. If Sonos continues with their current stance and does not provide updates for this, you won’t be enjoying your system if you use these (Pandora, Spotify, etc). See you in May?

 

The situation you’re describing is highly unlikely.  First off, Sonos has promised regular updates for 5 years after a product is discontinued.  Based on Sonos history, the majority of Sonos products have been supported much longer than that.  In terms of buying a new Sonos, the majority of products are new releases over the past couple years, and it is very likely they will not be discontinued any time soon.  Even the older products that are still for sale have twice the memory of legacy products.  Personally, I think it’s logical to avoid the playbar because a better replacement could be coming soon, not because the playbar is likely to lose updates any time soon.

 

Regarding what bug fixes means, we do not know how extensive a change Sonos will willing to do, nor whether the hardware could handle it.  But these sort of changes are rare.   I do think that if Pandora makes a change to their service, they will likely try to make the change within the existing API (and other services APIs).  Where that can't be done, they will surely give Sonos a few months notice before the change so Sonos has time to develop and test.  That means that the chance that a streaming service becomes unavailable on Sonos legacy soon after May very unlikely.

 

For customers that have a significant (whatever they think that is)  investment in legacy products, it makes a lot of sense to wait till May, and probably several months after, before buying another speaker.  It’s highly unlikely that anything will happen to your system and you’ll likely know what changes Sonos has made in modern systems, and perhaps new products.  You can then use the trade in program to replace legacy products or get something different.  

 

 

You have a lot of trust in a company that has gone out of their way to be less than forthright about all of this. I hope you’re right, and my plan is to sit tight until my services deprecate, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be happy about the uncertainty, buy any new products or recommend Sonos to friends. I also won’t be “upgrading” if and when my devices stop working with streaming services. 

How is it a misrepresentation that if you rely on streaming music services and this deprecates after 5 years, you will need to “re-invest” to continue to make it work with streaming music services. You are purposely misleading potential readers. If Sonos continues with their current stance and does not provide updates for this, you won’t be enjoying your system if you use these (Pandora, Spotify, etc). See you in May?

 

The situation you’re describing is highly unlikely.  First off, Sonos has promised regular updates for 5 years after a product is discontinued.  Based on Sonos history, the majority of Sonos products have been supported much longer than that.  In terms of buying a new Sonos, the majority of products are new releases over the past couple years, and it is very likely they will not be discontinued any time soon.  Even the older products that are still for sale have twice the memory of legacy products.  Personally, I think it’s logical to avoid the playbar because a better replacement could be coming soon, not because the playbar is likely to lose updates any time soon.

 

Regarding what bug fixes means, we do not know how extensive a change Sonos will willing to do, nor whether the hardware could handle it.  But these sort of changes are rare.   I do think that if Pandora makes a change to their service, they will likely try to make the change within the existing API (and other services APIs).  Where that can't be done, they will surely give Sonos a few months notice before the change so Sonos has time to develop and test.  That means that the chance that a streaming service becomes unavailable on Sonos legacy soon after May very unlikely.

 

For customers that have a significant (whatever they think that is)  investment in legacy products, it makes a lot of sense to wait till May, and probably several months after, before buying another speaker.  It’s highly unlikely that anything will happen to your system and you’ll likely know what changes Sonos has made in modern systems, and perhaps new products.  You can then use the trade in program to replace legacy products or get something different.  

 

 

The trade up offer isn’t going to expire. You can trade-in your legacy when the experience with your favorite music service starts to deprecate. This may happen in December 2020 or in five years time. And who knows whether your favorite service will still be around 24 months from now. Since 2013, I have seen many music services come and go on Sonos; about two-thirds of them went bankrupt and vanished into oblivion.

If you are a Spotify user, make sure your Sonos system is already running the most recent firmware v10.6.1, and you’re set for the time being.

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[...] And as mentioned, the team is going to try and provide bug fixes in the future for legacy devices, as the hardware permits.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/end-of-software-support-clarifications-6835969/index135.html#post16403824

 

Repeating the very same over and over again is tedious.

 

Bug fixes are not “updates”. In the original communications, it was stated that “updates” would be required to keep streaming music services going. In the clarification a few days later, it was reiterated that Legacy devices would not receive updates, but they would receive “bug fixes”. So, this statement does nothing to ameliorate concern about streaming music services deprecating.

[...] And as mentioned, the team is going to try and provide bug fixes in the future for legacy devices, as the hardware permits.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/end-of-software-support-clarifications-6835969/index135.html#post16403824

 

Repeating the very same over and over again is tedious.