Sonos CEO responds to outrage: Your Sonos WILL keep working – but changes are planned

The news that older Sonos speakers will be regarded as “legacy” by the company in just a few months was not received well online, and as a result, the company CEO has responded in a blog post and email to all affected owners.

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence wrote “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 just 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.“

There are three critical things there from the CEO.

Mainly, to stop people thinking their speakers will stop working – that’s not the case, and never was – this was badly reported.

Additionally, any bug fixes or security updates would be addressed even in legacy products.

But importantly, and this is the company getting it right – those with a “mixed system” of new and legacy products are the most affected here, so he says they are looking at a way to “split” the system to modern products do get the latest features.

Looks like a lot to do for the software engineers at Sonos.