[Closed] Sonos killing off 'legacy' products?

When I first read your post I thought WTH?! That’s crazy.

But then, thinking about it, it is just the same as MS Windows becoming unsupported or a gaurantee on a TV expiring.

Aren’t SONOS just saying that they will no longer be able to support the older generation of speakers and they won’t release new features - but they should continue to work as normal (unless there’s a malfunction of course).

They are getting a lot of stick for their 'upgrade' bricking of trade-ins. Basically completely stopping re-use.

They are getting a lot of stick for their ‘upgrade’ bricking of trade-ins. Basically completely stopping re-use.

Why is this an issue? People want to trade the kit in, but then still want to be able to use it/sell it on? Saw a bricked Connect on ebay a few days back, still asking £120 for it, cheeky ****er. If it's traded in, it's not really yours any longer. Sonos can do what they want with it, even if they've not physically taken possession.

I think they're expecting hardware issues supporting upcoming services from third parties eg Spotify, and Sonos needs all hardware on a network to be running the same version of software.

I get that some products need upgrading but I get the feeling it is that they want to move further into the echo/pebble/alexa market, and as my speakers have no microphone, they won't be as useful to sonos.

As for killing the old products for trade in, I get the fact it stops you cashing in and reselling as well, but I am against killing technology for no real reason - if they cared they could collect them and recycle them, or not kill the old stuff and refurb them as speakers.

To trade up 2 working products for a cost of another £770 (allowing for trade in) seems a bad deal. Especially if I have to do it again in 5 years!

The original products were not bought or sold as consumables (as I view a laptop) but as audio equipment (audiophiles, don't laugh) that would last years...

Surely there is a way to keep the old speakers as Wifi Speakers run from phone/iPad and use the phone/tablet as the processor - speakers could be very simple that way? I need a phone as a controller anyway

They are getting a lot of stick for their ‘upgrade’ bricking of trade-ins. Basically completely stopping re-use.

How do any other trade in schemes work.

Evan's fairly regularly have them, pretty sure there's not a stream of refurbished bikes being given to worthy causes as a result. It's just convincing the ride a bike once a year market that they're getting a bargain on their bike for the next 10 years.

From their post it sounds like they will keep working on your system. They won't get updates or new features, but those are likely features you don't need if you've used the products for this long without needing them.

As they are integrated streaming, amplifier and speaker there has to be some level of compromise surely? If the amp blew in an integrated speaker after this much use would you be upset or think it had done it's work over the last X years?

I get that some products need upgrading but I get the feeling it is that they want to move further into the echo/pebble/alexa market, and as my speakers have no microphone, they won’t be as useful to sonos.

Very much this. There's nothing that unique to the Connect that means it'll work right now but will immediately stop on May 1st - it's more Sonos trying to roll more and more unnecessary sh*te into their already not-entirely-stable software.
Which wouldn't be such a problem if they didn't incessantly ram software updates down your throat.

Aren’t SONOS just saying that they will no longer be able to support the older generation of speakers and they won’t release new features

Yes, as far as it goes, but they're also saying:

"Systems containing older devices after the update in May will stop receiving updates, and will essentially be frozen as you said. Your Sonos products operate together as a system. As such, all products in the system need to be running the same software. If legacy products are part of a system with modern products, the modern products will not be able to receive the latest software updates as well."

Which will, sooner rather than later, mean that you can't add or replace items to an existing system because anything new will have new software.

So would be akin to Matika changing their battery mount for new tools.

Next - Tesla announce that they will be dropping support for 5yr old cars and will no longer be supplying safety patches. You're welcome to continue driving but there are some scenarios where a hacker in China can remotely disable the brakes.

How do any other trade in schemes work.

Evan’s fairly regularly have them, pretty sure there’s not a stream of refurbished bikes being given to worthy causes as a result.

They are donated to a network of charities - Recycle Your Cycle & Hospice UK being the largest with over 1500 bikes donated in just the last year. 90% of them are refurbished and sold to raise money for the charities.
There is a long list of other recipients at the bottom of this page:
https://www.evanscycles.com/trade-in

Obviously the most commonly known of kind of trade-in is the used car industry where they get resold and re-used as long as is economically viable due to wear and tear. It's actually a pretty green industry in terms of how much gets reused and recycled.

Phones are refurbished and re-sold.

Hard to think of a similar scheme to Sonos to be honest.

Which will, sooner rather than later, mean that you can’t add or replace items to an existing system because anything new will have new software.

I may have read this wrong, but if you've got a system with an old (v1) play 5 and a pair of play 1s, the play 5 will not be updated so the play 1s can't be either.
If you replace the old play 5 with a supported (V2 or newer) play 5 then everything will then be supported and therefore will receive updates.

Does that sound right?

Fundamentally I think you're better off decoupling yourself by getting quality non-smart audio/video devices and buying whatever the hot cheap smart adapter is. I'm using audio/TV chromecasts and home mini. Then you just upgrade the cheap thing over time, keeping the expensive quality gear that makes the most difference to music quality or whatever. The problem with Sonos, smarttv etc is that it is all bundled together so when the software is no longer economic to update, it's all screwed.

Hard to think of a similar scheme to Sonos to be honest.

If they had an aux input then possibly they could have continued to work as standalone units.
Shame.
But the legacy products will still work on a purely legacy product network.... So that's not so bad.

The price of used legacy kit should drop and then you could have a play 5 network instead of new play one's!
Seeing as Sonos say that products should/will have a ten year update window I'm fairly happy that the play 1s I bought from them last year are good for a while.

I had a similar gripe with GoPro. 5 year old camera bricked by crap software updates. So they are on the companies to avoid list now. I compare with Canon and Nikon who support stuff for time periods measured in decades!

The problem with sonos is that it’s a closed system.

I don’t have home WiFi (use a 4g router thing) so no use to me.

Have two play3’s I literally couldn’t give away a year or two back (people went and bought more open stuff instead).

We have sonos around the house and even though I am not currently affected, I will not be buying there products again after them doing this. I suppose I better sell before they become obsolete now I need to find a replacement.

Fundamentally I think you’re better off decoupling yourself by getting quality non-smart audio/video devices and buying whatever the hot cheap smart adapter is.

This.

My high quality seperates will always sound better than a Sonos and with a £20 adaptor plays stuff from wireless sources, pay more to get internet stuff.

You’ve paid the price for being duped into the latest music lifestyle fad. Overblown bass, mono sound and now planned obsolescence from the geniuses that sold you them? No thanks.

Another annoyed Sonos user here. In addition to the comments above I think this decision might relate to 24bit hi-res audio, which Sonos can’t currently manage.

What alternatives are there to a Connect?

I have two Play1s in other rooms which will continue to work but I use the connect mainly to play music through a decent NAD amp and speaker setup, mostly Spotify tbh but other stuff too.

Bearing in mind the current software works perfectly fine and works with Apple play provided you have at least one item that is compatible, I can’t really see why I would need any updates. Over the many years of having a Sonos system I can’t say I can remember a single update that resulted in a noticeable change to how the system worked.

Re Connect - you just need the newer version - now called a ‘Port’.

Standard hifi with Yamaha streaming separate WXAD10 will do for me. This and the longstanding Sonos requirement for them to listen in and flog your data for upgrades have convinced me that its equipment that won't be used here.

I got this as well. instantly annoyed me. as well as a couple of play 1's and a sound bar I've got a connect amp which is fully functional and giving new life to an old Bose wave radio with line in and a gen 1 5 that is still fine and in good condition that are now both going to be obsolete.

I guess std functionality will work (until they really turn up the heat?) and my system has been solid for years. will have to take my chances I guess.

Cant help thinking their comms team waited for the win 7 furore to hit and then get this news out!

One other issue is that even on current Sonos products IPv6 isn’t fully supported - which I only managed to pinpoint after a month of cursing at the system intermittently not working and having to be reset each time.

ot - Sonos app seems to being killing my iphone battery at the moment. I think there was a new app update in the last few days and now my battery on my otherwise healthy 7+ is dead by lunch and apparently the Sonos app is the bad guy according to my ios setting battery health check. I'm not playing anything stored on the phone so not quite sure why it is doing that.

Can anyone suggest an alternative to Sonos now that they are treating their customers like poo? I have two Sonos connects, and a Play 3, which are mostly used for Spotify, and a bit of BBC radio. There's a hard disc full of mp3s somewhere that I've been meaning to connect up too.

What should I be using instead?

Nice to have would be "casting" audio from phone (or ability to "catch up" Radio 4 somehow). I use a separate Chromecast audio to do this at the moment.

@convert. Probably 24 hour data slurping and phoning home to pass this on.

What should I be using instead?

Well, Ikea do either bookshelf speakers, or lamps with the base acting as a speaker that use Sonos connectivity, IIRC.
Yeah, Symphonisk
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/news/symfonisk-collection-pubaafe6500

I recently bought 4 of the Symfonisk bookshelf speakers and am so far very impressed

They replaced a very knackered hifi setup so the improvement in sound quality was massive

I don't have any experience of other Sonos stuff, but reviews suggest it compares well to a Play 1

Back on topic, that's very crap about the 'legacy' products. Sonos has always had loyal followers which are going to be rightfully pissed off now!

I got the email this morning too and thought “meh” because the unit they’ve highlighted for me is an old ZP80 which I bought 5 years ago second hand. So feel like I’ve had a pretty good run with it.

It’s used in the bedroom and I’ll use this as an opportunity to upgrade the Connect in the lounge to the new version, can’t remember what it’s called, and move the Connect to the bedroom.

Slightly annoying but not the end of the world, I’m very happy with my Sonos system currently and AirPlay will be handy which I don’t have at the moment.

If you only upgrade one component than you’ll be stuck with the no upgrade option as the Connect and Connect:Amp are both on the ‘legacy’ list.
With 5 Connect Amps and one Connect nearly 2.5 grand to upgrade is a bit much.....

as the Connect and Connect:Amp are both on the ‘legacy’ list.

According to the “my system” section on their website my Connect ZP80 is legacy but the ZP90 is still current. I think.

What are the best options for cheaply allowing both Android and Apple phones to connect to old hifi equipment? I've a couple of zp80s in rooms I don't use much. Voice control not important. (It's been awful in my Sonos system anyway so we don't use it)

Alternatively is there a way of running 2 separate Sonos networks independent of each other from the same router? I doubt it...

Looks like the alternative is to turn off auto update in the system and computer app. Not a problem. But also turn off auto update (for all apps, not just Sonos) in each phone in the household and hope no-one does it by mistake. And put up with manually updating all the other phone apps from now on. Which is a pain....

Dougal365 - I bought an Arcam miniblink Bluetooth adapter. It connects into an aux input on my amp and I can connect the phone/tablet into that. Works well and im sure there’ll be cheaper options too.

Connect Amps are in the legacy list not just the older ZP80! I know people are going on about adapters for other audio components but this is in no way comparable to a Sonos across the entire home with every room controllable from a single App and a player connected to an existing hifi in one room. I’ve got 8 rooms connected and even if I did decide to go with a different system it would end up costing more and sounding worse.

Whilst it annoys me I’m guessing it’s unavoidable that hardware on older products will be unable to do things that newer updates will require. And 30% off is a pretty good deal, just not when you need 6 new amps...

@dougal365 There used to be a Jongo unit that allowed phones and tablets to connect to hifi. Mine was around £30. Still available too on Amazon for £35 try this. Mine was a bit of a faff to set up and update, with a couple of resets required.

Yup. I got the email yesterday to inform me the connect be legacy after May. I'm pretty damn annoyed about it as well. That box cost £250 (which i thought was quite excessive at the time as all it does it push output into an amp)

makes me wonder about buying more sonos products if this is whats going to happen in the futre

There’s a lot of talk about 5 year old systems being dropped but those devices actually date from 2005 connect amp(zp100 at the time), 2006 connect (zp80 at the time) and 2009 play 5 (zone player s5 at the time).

How many of us have a 2005 computer that you expect to run the latest os on?

The platforms that are being dropped are based on 11-15 year old platforms irrespective of when they were purchased.

Also we need to consider that it’s not simply Sonos making this call, changes made by the bbc, Spotify, deezer, tunein all have a part to play and require Sonos to release updated software.

I can remember when the bbc made changes to its streaming services and listen-again functionality was lost for a month or two, totally out of Sonos control.

There comes a point in all computers lifecycles where it’s no longer technically and / or commercially viable to continue support, 11-15 years doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.

I got this too. We have a ZP100 that I bought secondhand cheaply, mostly to keep on using the same Mission speakers I've had since I was 17. I've had a good 4 years or so out of it but mine was made in 2008, and the introduced it in 2005, a couple of years before even the iPhone.

In some ways I think I've got decent value from it, and 15 years of support is a good run, but the only direct replacement is the Amp which is still £420 after the discount.

Sonos are in a tricky position commercially - supporting stuff for so long is good for customers but they're publicly traded and have targets for sales and growth. Support, software updates, testing etc is all a cost. Their stuff is really well built and home audio gets treated very well for the most part - no big temperature variations or dangers like spills or drops that would kill off units. Something like 37% of their sales are to people who already have a Sonos device, which says a lot about how much people like them, but they'll run out of rooms to put them in eventually.

For me I guess it hinges on what happens after May. If I can still play off my home server, Spotify, Pocketcasts and TuneIn then I don't really care, I'll keep on using it. If any of those do end up broken I'll probably go the least-cost route of the Ikea Sonos speakers to replace it. I like the system (or rather really dislike the alternatives) so unlikely to sack it all off.

Hard to think of a similar scheme to Sonos to be honest.

Probably the car scrappage scheme was close, but I appreciate that was to help out the car industry by getting people to buy new cars get polluting cars off the road.

The IKea speakers are just Sonos, so you're supporting exactly the same company thats just screwed you over, if that worries you.

Its a bad doo this imo.

Sonos used to be proud that all its old kit was still in use. Last time i tried to use it it needed to upgrade and couldnt. I couldnt use it at that point. I had to re connect all my speakers via cable to the router and then update each individualy.

Sold it all and bought google home max speakers. No where near as good and i dont think they will be supported a long but there a lot cheaper and do the job.

For me I guess it hinges on what happens after May. If I can still play off my home server, Spotify, Pocketcasts and TuneIn then I don’t really care, I’ll keep on using it.

As I read it, if everything on your sonos network is legacy (i.e. in your case you only are using the ZP100, or you are someone with one or more gen1 Play5s and nothing else) then everything will continue to work exactly the same as it does today. It won't receive any updates after May, but it will still continue to work.

15 years of support is a good run

This. I'm not sure I can think of any other software driven item that receives that length of official support - certainly not phones, TVs or PCs.
Obvs... I might be wrong though.

I’ve 5 Sonos units , won’t be buying anymore after this.
Was already sick of the constant updates , sound quality nowhere near as good as my proper hifi gear .
Good luck to sonos

If they keep working why is it an issue? Security??? Not sure why my Sonos needs security anyway? As long as it can access my music library and Spotify I’m not sure it really matters.
Also ref sound quality - this depends on what speakers you use. Pair a Sonos Amp with some decent quality speakers and they compare very favourably to similarly priced separate amps. Please don’t expect to buy a single little Play 1 or something and then compare it to an audio separates system. For what they are they sound great.

Connect Amps are in the legacy list not just the older ZP80!

Ah I’d missed that it included the Amps, I don’t have any.

I presume that everything will carry on working as normal after May until one of the services updates and breaks, and that one won’t get fixed.

And I agree with @andylc - sound quality for the Connect & Connect Amp is great if you hook it up to decent speakers or amp. And my various Play 1s are great for other rooms.

I guess I’ll be a bit more annoyed once my 5 Play 1s stop working.

On the plus side I’ve just checked and have an old controller that hasn’t been plugged in for over a year, apparently “recycling” that will get me a 30% discount on anything too, so I can keep the old Connect working if I want.

I guess it's not just security updates but updates to keep integration with Spotify, BBC etc. working. I like the idea posted somewhere above about a cheap bridge/connect type product which gets replaced now and then but you get to keep your more expensive speakers. That's probably what I'll look into if/when my Sonos Connect and Play5 stop working although I guess my Play1s will keep working a bit longer although I think I'd need a new Sonos Connect.

Sonos have botched the announcement of this for sure. So much confusion and misinformation, seems to be people (not necessarily here) that are convinced their devices are going to be bricked, which is total nonsense. They have also now stated in response to some of the criticism that they are working on a way to separate out systems so your newer speakers can still be updated, but it's kinda too late as complaints have already started to snowball.

Personally not entirely sure it's a huge deal, devices will still work as they do right now. Everyone feeling smug that their 40 year old hifi still works, well a 40 year old Sonos may well still work, it just won't be getting any software updates. Did your 40 year old hifi get upgraded to the latest technology for 10 years after you bought it? Probably not.
Seems akin to complaining that introduction of tape decks/CD's/mini disc/MP3 was terrible because it was not backwards compatible with any other music format.

Yes, the point where it's a problem is if a new streaming service comes along that you want to use, or if a streaming service changes something like the BBC did a while ago. Sonos roll the changes into an update that they push out, but only if your active units are all supported.

30% offer is pretty generous but I wonder for how long they will offer it? Would be worth over a grand of discount to me if I upgrade my entire system.

Did your 40 year old hifi get upgraded to the latest technology for 10 years after you bought it? Probably not.
Seems akin to complaining that introduction of tape decks/CD’s/mini disc/MP3 was terrible because it was not backwards compatible with any other music format.

That reasoning is a bit of a stretch. In a way all the new formats were backwards compatible as you could just buy a new separate and plug it into your amp. My 1990 Technics amp has a turntable, tape player, CD player and wireless module plugged into it!

And the manufacturer doesn’t have any control over how it works once I’ve bought it, it’s all easily fixable and sounds better.

it’s all easily fixable and sounds better.

Sounds better than what?

I bet my Sonos Connect sounds just as good as any other source you have plugged in to your amp?

I guess it’s not just security updates but updates to keep integration with Spotify, BBC etc.

But there's nothing in those that would need hardware beyond what a Connect has - they've worked and continue to work fine right now. And the spec gap between a Connect and a Play:1/ Play:3 isn't large - so will they be next on the chopping block?

And the spec gap between a Connect and a Play:1/ Play:3 isn’t large – so will they be next on the chopping block?

Play3.... maybe (I've got one and can't decide what to do with it)

Play1.... Seeing as Sonos still sell them new, and they say they'll support products for at least 10 years, then I doubt it. I would imagine there's vastly more Play1's in the world than Play5s or Connect Amps. It would be a massive deal to mess with that.... but who knows?

Anyway.... if anyone wants to sell their Connect Amp before it explodes.... then I may be interested 🙂

Personally not entirely sure it’s a huge deal, devices will still work as they do right now.

mine didnt. wouldnt work without an update.

Play3 will be next

Pretty smart (from the Sonos community)
"I froze my system in August 2018 at version 9.1, blocked the update server on my router so don’t get any reminders about updates.

It’s been working fine ever since, in fact it’s been very reliable, especially not having to continually update and then try and find all the speakers again."

mine didnt. wouldnt work without an update.

Is this because the app saw that an update was available and wouldn't continue to work until the update had been applied, in which case...

Just make sure that at least one legacy product is powered on and visible in the controller app at all times. Then Sonos will not apply any update to any part of your system.

...the app will not see that an update is available ... so it should all still work!

Sonos are getting an immense amount of shit for this announcement - I suspect things might change.

too late for me moved to google 🙁

I bet my Sonos Connect sounds just as good as any other source you have plugged in to your amp?

Not when they decide they want you to buy the latest shiny toy and switch off support for it.

Evan’s fairly regularly have them, pretty sure there’s not a stream of refurbished bikes being given to worthy causes as a result.

@thisisnotaspoon - do you have any inside knowledge of that (re. "pretty sure") - it directly contradicts what Evans say about it on their website, so it's a bit of a scandal if they claim they're all going to charity and they're not. Not that such shenanigans from Mike Ashley would shock anyone.

On the Sonos "bricking" thing, my concern isn't so much the individual loss of a potential resale, but the global impact of deliberately turning perfectly functional electronics (with those rare earth elements dug out of holes in the African ground in appalling conditions etc) into landfill. Not what we (as a species) should be doing, regardless of who makes or loses some £s along the way.

what i dont understand is why done they send them back and sell them refurbed?

andybrad

Subscriber

what i dont understand is why done they send them back and sell them refurbed?

Probably because it's costing too much to maintain the old software/servers and a rewrite to modern standards would cost too much.

Often wonder whether I'm missing a trick by sticking with my 20 year old seperates hi fi ( with bluetooth dongle attachment for streaming) rather than using a sonos type system, this news suggests I am not! ill stick with my old rig for now

Play1…. Seeing as Sonos still sell them new

Not sure about this - I think it's been superseded by the new One and OneSL, which are voice activated. Certainly Sonos seemed to be selling off original Play:1s cheap before Christmas

Sonos have close their own comments pages after 56 pages

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/end-of-software-updates-for-legacy-products-6835470/index56.html

Bought my last product (5, 3, 2X old 1 and a Connect). Will they offer trade in for a Naim?

I'm not convinced it will all legacy stuff continue to work as it does now either.
At some point you'll get a new phone OS that they'll drop support for.
So it will only stay working as long as you keep the same software environment throughout the chain.

Having seen the updated clarifications thread on Sonos Forums things look a bit brighter (from my point of view). Looks like you will still be able to run the old speakers, albeit at some point it is likely the streaming services will gradually drop off. I suspect much of that will be outwith Sonos control.
Some good suggestions above for when that happens..thanks for the replies @Sandwich and @tartanscarf

It’s made the BBC tech section today ,

Major S##t storm on bbc Twitter etc
Thousands of Sonos customers far from happy 😃

I'm glad this seems to be getting more sensible. I'm already a bit unhappy with Sonos and Connect/Amp products. Just had to replace a ZP80 as the memory board had so many bad blocks that it couldn't cope and kept cutting out. When I innocently asked if this could be rectified by replacing the memory, I was effectively told to not be so silly and be grateful my connector has worked for 9 years. Hmm. What a waste of components for want of £20 worth of memory.

Anyhoo, on streaming, can you not stream whatever you like to any Sonos speaker using Google home on your phone? All of my speakers come up as available audio devices in the Google home app. Never tried to stream to them (no point as there is the Sonos app) but it looks like it should work.

If you don't mind getting slightly geeky, you already have some decent hifi equipment and you fancy streaming stuff.

Raspberry pi or pi zero
Justboom DAC / amp or justboom zero amp/DAC.

Install Picoreplayer/LMS

Gives you Spotify Connect, Airplay, Tidal, Multiroom sync etc etc.

https://www.picoreplayer.org/pcp_feature.shtml

Other solutions on the same Hardware such as Volumio are available.

Multiple Sonos device owner here, none of which are impacted by this announcement

However, this is commercial suicide for them. It will kill sales going forward.

I can see them heavily revising and rolling back on the message and support issues

This is totally foreseeable, and so Sonos must have known about it at the design stage. Planned obsolescence has been their strategy from the outset. They want people to buy new products, not keep them forever.

A truly future proof system could have all the CPU and other WiFi gubbins as a replaceable module in each Sonos unit, which can be easily swapped out when it gets too old (either by the owner or specialist). A bit too late to suggest that...

The consumer rage they've stirred up will force them to find a solution. I suspect sending them back for a refurb will be the only way. Which people still won't be happy with if it's not free.

What a mess!

A disappointing announcement from Sonos for sure.

Even loyal buyers will think twice about buying future Sonos products if they go through with this.

A lot of calls to boycott Sonos on twitter so I'm hoping they will change their plans and support all products in their range. How hard can it be to do different updates for older speakers?

I thought deliberately bricking products was something only Apple did.

I'll wait and see how Sonos handles this before I decide what to do.

does this tie in with their google lawsuit i wonder?

I have a play5 and 1, was not pleased to read about this, as they were expensive items (for us) to buy. Our ageing surround sound system (10+ years old) works fine but I want to replace with somethingmore modern and I've been trying to justify the huge cost of a sonos system (bar, sub, play1s). Will not being doing that now, if I fork out for premium kit, I expect premium support.

petefromearth

This is totally foreseeable, and so Sonos must have known about it at the design stage. Planned obsolescence has been their strategy from the outset. They want people to buy new products, not keep them forever.

A truly future proof system could have all the CPU and other WiFi gubbins as a replaceable module in each Sonos unit, which can be easily swapped out when it gets too old (either by the owner or specialist). A bit too late to suggest that…

I started writing pretty much this exact post yesterday, but gave up finishing it, as I don't actually own any Sonos kit & couldn't be arsed to comment.
It's a real shame, not just with Sonos but with kit like this in general that the vast majority of the product will still function perfectly well, but has reached the end of a supportable life & so the whole thing gets ditched. A replaceable module for the part that is known to go obsolete would be a much more environmentally responsibly way to do this, but I am not sure whether it would be a good business model, or not.

Surely a legacy app is the sensible option. Keep an old version of the app for old hardware and everything works on that.

Newer hardware runs on the newer app and gets updates etc.

Surely a legacy app is the sensible option. Keep an old version of the app for old hardware and everything works on that.

Newer hardware runs on the newer app and gets updates etc.

This is what I'm thinking. I reckon some Dev in a shed is creating an App as we speak, for just this scenario. You may have to buy the App and subscribe to it like you do to Sonos... But market forces apply here. Theres literally 000's of potential customers who just want to keep what they've got running and faced with an upgrade which could (incl the 30% discount) run into £4k would happily buy some App or Tech that keeps what they have.

And probably release before Sonos eat some Media Pie and create one of their own...

Obviously the ideal scenario for the the customers would be for Sonos to open source the hardware so others could develop for it. However I am sure they would see that at commercially damaging so won't.

Logitech did it with the squeezebox and its still popular long after the company stopped supporting it.

This is what I’m thinking. I reckon some Dev in a shed is creating an App as we speak, for just this scenario.

Before Sonos I had Logitech Squeezeboxes. 2 years in to ownership they killed it off and stopped supporting it.

The software was open source and kept running by, presumably, a couple of guys as a hobby. It was ok but glitchy as hell and often broke. Sonos has been a dream in comparison, so I’m not sure the dev in a shed model is the way forward.