Patrick Spence, the Chief Executive Officer of Sonos, released a statement on the official website of the company to bring light to some confusions caused by their recent announcement on Tuesday, Jan. 21 about discontinuing sending system updates and other features to their older product starting May. Some of these products include Zone Players, Connect and Connect: Amp gadgets, and the Sonos Play 5 (1st Generation).
According to the company, these devices will stop functioning according to its expected performance soon.
The announcement had sent hundreds of old Sonos device users to react on the matter negatively. Some were even claiming that the company may have implemented this new policy for 'planned obsolescence.'
What Will Happen to Sonos Legacy Products?
In the official statement, Spence started by saying that there were misunderstandings from the interpretations of the company's announcement. He then apologized and clarified that their 'legacy products' will still be functioning the way it does now when May comes.
The Sonos CEO assured that they had not planned for the obsolescence of their legacy devices. Also, he confirmed that the company is not going to collect such products from their owners.
Spence shared in the statement the company's knowledge of its customers' substantial investment in their Sonos systems. He said that that company will still send bug fixes and other security updates to their 'legacy products.' The limit of the delivery of these updates is still undetermined, but the company promises to send them continuously.
The recent statement released by the CEO of Sonos does not take back the company's announcement on Tuesday. It was only intended to clarify someconfusions regarding what to expect when May comes.
Sonos stressed that some of these 'legacy products' were first released a decade ago. It added that these devices are already at the stage where it had reached its technological limit.
Sonos CEO shared that the company is working on a solution to allow its customers to continue using their legacy products in their primary Sonos systems still.
The company designed their devices to share the same kind of software. It means that when one of their products stops receiving updates, the entire system also stops getting the updates.
Sonos' Plans For The Future
In the statement, Spence said that the company will work harder to earn back the trust and loyalty of their customers. In this regard, Sonos is currently doing its best to separate its customers' Sonos systems to allow their modern version components to work effectively and receive the latest feature updates. The company is still in the process of finalizing their move for this plan. An announcement regarding this matter will be released in the following weeks.
The company encourages its customers to try and upgrade to the Sonos' latest devices for its incredible features and not because they feel forced to do so. It is the reason for the development of the company's trade-up scheme for its loyal customers.
