Wondering what everyone thinks about the decision to drop support for older products, Other than a few accessories and controllers, you could use most any device since day 1 with the system.

Is it a revenue grab?
An attempt to deal with their debt or stock price?
Part of the lawsuit?

SONOS RELEASE
"End of software updates
In May the following products in your system will be classified as legacy and no longer receive software updates and new features. This will affect your listening experience.

Legacy products were introduced between 2005 and 2011 and, given the age of the technology, do not have enough memory or processing power to sustain future innovation.

Please note that because Sonos is a system, all products operate on the same software. If modern products remain connected to legacy products after May, they also will not receive software updates and new features.

You have options
Continue using legacy products
You can continue using legacy products after May, but your system will no longer receive software updates and new features. Over time this is likely to disrupt access to services and overall functionality.
Trade up legacy products
Save 30% on a new product when you upgrade through the Sonos Trade Up program."

Kind of a silly question.
Technology always moves on and much older equipment is not going to have the ability to function with new features and performance. The old tech at some point with cripple being able to do updated features & performance for new things, if you continue to try and support it.
I think SONOS has been one of the best companies at supporting old electronics of anyone in the industry.
So anyone that does get upset over this, is just being stupid and unreasonable.

The email does not describe the whole situation. Some of the CONNECT:AMP's and CONNECTS will be OK -- for a little while. It depends on the manufacturing date. I can imagine users who bought new and stale CONNECT:AMP's last spring will be dismayed.

I have already received some customer correspondence about this. I think that social media and the Sonos forums will blow-up.

They plan to have the ability to "segregate" old equipment new equipment on the same system so old will not be updated, and new will get updated... That could mean two separate systems that operate independently of each other... In the same house.

"Stale" sonos systems will operate fine... Until the Pandoras, Spotifys, and SXM's of the world update their systems... Then what?

What about systems that have a stale connect amp serving as surrounds with a playbar?

It seems that the "old" sonos connects and Connect Amp's that will be going stale are the ones that have the blue rubber on the bottom, the blue label in back, and the old sonos logo on the front. Right around 2015 they switched to the new logo with the gray rubber on the bottom and gray label in back... I'm guessing that is the "change over" point.

Not a fair statement. They provided no heads up to dealers and really didn't touch upon the dealers ability to handle the trade in, beyond a small blurb in the email with a brief description of where to opt in for the trade in program (the whole opt in thing is dumb btw). Being that the email went out to client and dealers alike at the same time, it gave us no time to prepare for the calls and emails that immediately came in. Can we handle trade in? What is the cost to the client? What is the cost to us? This should have been brought to our attention a few weeks ago, or at the very least a few days ago.

Sounds like an exit strategy already. One of our best decisions was ditching Sonos when MusicCast came around.

If Sonos lose their lawsuit against Google... then they'll be ripe for a takeover.
Just wait for the 'shenanigans' that new owners could get up to!
It's interesting times for the company... interesting times...

Going to be interesting to see what happens in the used market.
Was a time you could resell for more than the dealer credit was worth.

I was going to say the same thing. The only person I'd call stupid about being upset would be the super rich dude who was trying to save money by going with Sonos. It's not going to hurt him. But the guy who bought one component, then another, and another, and built a system as he could afford it...THAT guy has every right to be ticked off. And that's the guy it was made for - not the super rich guy.

I always had an aversion to 'integrated' devices: TVs with the DVD slot in the side, VHS/DVD combos that always had the broken VHS side, Crestron Adagio units and even things like Matrix Audio with the speaker level keypads, to a degree. They didn't age evenly, and you always ended up with one crapped out section that made the rest of the thing pretty much worthless. Well, I guess the same thing happens when you lobotomize a Sonos speaker.

I think they should clarify things. They stopped doing software updates for the old touch screens too, but they were still functional for several years if I recall.

I expect Sonos to drop all direct dealers as well and force everyone to distribution unless you are super high volume (best buy, costco, amazon, etc)

If a legacy unit breaks and needs to be replaced ... it will be an expensive repair.
Also, replacing a pad/phone could get expensive if the then currently available controller software cannot deal with legacy.

I have had calls from so many clients today about this. Many of them have racks full of "old" Sonos connects or amps. I've told them all that nothing's shutting down today, so let's see how this plays out. Some have said they don't care and they want us to pull all of the Sonos units and replace with another solution. Principle, they say.

We worked as Sonos' VIP installers for their artist relations for almost 10 years. We did stadiums, concert venues, mansions, massive parties...even a 777 jet. The product always spoke for itself. It's sad to see this happen, but that's the way the money rolls.

Let's say hypothetically, for a client with a "rack full of Connects and Connect amps" What do we replace with? Thinking stuff an average installer can get...

Musicast
Heos
Alexa Link, link amp
Nuvo/Legrand streamer
Autonomic

Then there's the "exclusive" stuff:

Crestron
Savant
Control 4

What else could/should CI jumping off of the Sonos Ship be looking at?

I don't know if we will be ditching Sonos, but I do know that we will need some alternatives so the customers who just want rid of their stale Sonos gear...

And... Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, the trade in credit is really only like 20-25% when you factor in the $50 price increase that hit the Port and the Amp, 12 days ago.