Sonos apologises over plan affecting older smart speakers

Boss says firm is working to ensure older and newer products can be used together

The wireless speaker company Sonos has apologised for announcing a plan that would force customers to throw away older speakers or be blocked from receiving software updates for new hardware, after a wave of criticism from its loyal users.

“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,” the Sonos chief executive, Patrick Spence, wrote in an open letter.

“We heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to co-exist 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 finalising details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.”

Sonos’s “legacy” products, which include items sold as recently as 2015, will still be blocked from future software updates, eventually rendering them inoperable as standards change. However, the company had come under particular criticism for a plan that went beyond what was normal in the technology industry: new hardware operating on the same system as “legacy” equipment would also be blocked from receiving software updates.

The move was seen as an attempt to force upgrades on to customers who might otherwise be happy to use their old speakers indefinitely, an interpretation Spence said was untrue.

“While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so … I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust.”

In recent months, Sonos has become more aggressive about trying to maintain profitability in the face of competition from rival technology platforms, such as Apple, Google and Amazon. As well as the decision to end support for some devices, the company launched a lawsuit against Google, claiming it stole Sonos’s intellectual property and used it to launch its own smart speaker, Google Home. Sonos would have sued Amazon for the same infringement, Spence said, but it was felt it only had the resources to fight one legal battle at a time.

Contributor

Alex Hern Technology editor

The GuardianTramp

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