I was on a dealer webinar yesterday and they said there are currently no plans to stop the trade up offer.

I’d pay a few bucks to see a timeline graph of sale percentages from first shipping date to today of CI sales contrasted with big box and consumer direct. Pretty sure zero f’s are given about resellers at this point.

If you read Sonos's earnings calls, you'll see that the executives are really looking to grow their direct sales. It means they bank all the margin and don't give it to a retailer or CI company.
In reality, Sonos are selling more and more units, they really did crack that part of the market.. however they haven't figured out the whole 'how to actually be profitable' thing.

[Link: blog.sonos.com]

It appears that Sonos is run by actual human people

It appears that Sonos is run by f**king retarded people.

They blast our clients with a bullsheet email about legacy products introduced between 2005 and 2011 and how their Sonos Connects from 2014 "will be classified as legacy and no longer receive software updates and new features. This will affect your listening experience."

And then CEO Doofus blogs about being a f**k-up? How about CEO Doofus blast our clients with another email explaining that Sonos management is f**ked?

Company makes a business decision (maybe not so well thought out).
Company gets feedback from it's customers that they are not happy with the decision.
Company changes course to satisfy its customers.

How is that a bad thing?

I guess it depends on the angle you look at it from. On the one hand, listening and making changes to satisfy customers is a good thing. On the other hand, it shows that they CAN do things the right way and no force new equipment to remain on old firmware. That says to me they were trying to force people to upgrade to boost profits.

wow, I have to agree with the 'what a bunch of idiots' comments, they must be so out of touch it's crazy. Probably to much time away on their yachts to pay attention to what's going on.

Temper tantrum city 'round here! LOL

Oh remember that time C4 bought EV and all the URC guys got boned......best part was they announced it in the middle of CEDIA IIRC.

Good times......good times.

I LAUGH when I read C4 guys bitch about when the EV driver stopped working overnight thanks to Sonos.  Same guys that said its tough shit that URC guys no longer had access to drivers they paid for.

Yes same retarded people that created a startup much better and miles ahead that anyone, became market leaders by far, created a new industry for customers that cannot afford CIs, went public and the company now is worth multiple billions and does 1+ billion sales - much more than almost anyone in our industry.

Yes these rich Sonos guys are really f**king retarded - while us CIs with our basic salary doing things that we think are nuclear science - which are really not - are the clever ones. Hmmmm...

And from another forum, my post:

It is amazing how much people in our industry want to hate Sonos. Even if this happened it is not so bad.

Lot's of examples above and a few below:

Think about the resi control systems and especially the 2 big ones: Both Crestron and C4 stop hardware support every 5-6 years when a big "OS" upgrade happens. Crestron fanboys will say no since SIMPL is SIMPL but let's see just a few examples: Crestron Bus is now IP, old touchscreens can not be updated, old touchscreens that could cost $15k do not support swipe or the possibility to do a nice interface and so on. Yes it cannot continue to work - as Sonos can do - but surely the hardware cannot support any upgrades. Same for 2k Crestron remotes with outdated resolutions and so on.

What about networking? Can a 6-7 year top of the range $1k Ruckus AP support a 500-1000 Mbps connection (bandwidth). How do you handle the situation with a customer that cannot get 1Gbps wirelessly using his new superfast 1Gbp internet connection through his state of the art 20k wireless system bought 6 years ago?

How do you handle a lighting processor that failed in a 100k+ lighting system installed 8 years ago and that processor is EOL and Lutron/Crestron do not have any stock and cannot help you?

There are tens of examples much much worse in our industry that we are facing often but we do not complain. Sonos releases an announcement and gives 30% back on 10+ year equipment and immediately we complain.

Mobile phone: I have to buy a new 1k iphone for my wife because it does not support the latest iOS. Yes it works - like Sonos would - but much worse it cannot use the latest apps that you need everyday. Android is even worse on this.

I think it is high time to be fair and objective and not just fanboys or haters.

I just sent an MX-780 in last Fall.

Oooof... Whole lotta non-facts in that one. Wow.

Yes I am imagining things.

Weird that I have also dealt with them and deal with them quite often.

Weird that I had to find two Lutron processors on ebay last year so that two families could have lighting in the home where they spend Apartment buying money $$$ for this system.

Weird that I have to buy phones or pcs every couple of years or even 3-4 years let’s say.

Weird that my customer with the home that won the Crestron best integrated home award and spent beyond what someone can imagine for tech a few years back now has to spend more than a nice car to change his 5 year touchscreens and remotes to new ones that can support a proper resolution and swipe actions.

Weird that customers are now educated, can do speedtests and require wirelessly the bandwidth they pay for their internet connection and their 5 year 20k Ruckus system cannot simply not provide.


I can probably add about 50 more of these in our industry or in consumer electronics without thinking much.

You either accept this is the reality of technology as mentioned above, grow two and deal with it.