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A comment on Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle. Parent comment

Re:Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle by bmelton on Monday January 13, 2025 @09:33PM (#42692772)
The market has matured, but as of a year ago, there isn't another solution that I could drop in that could replace my SONOS system. SONOS is so far ahead and had to establish themselves by solving for so many fringe use cases that they are generally the only ones who have things like the connect:amps to bridge wired outdoor speakers and architectural in-ceiling/in-garden speakers within the same ecosystem

I'm sure that at some point, Samsung or Google or Sony or some upstart will catch up, but it will be a long time before someone eliminates SONOS from contention despite this multi-year setback

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Re:Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle by glitchinc on Monday January 13, 2025 @11:21PM (#42693583)
HEOS-capable gear from Marantz and Denon cover a lot of the applications you referenced. I decided I would never buy another Sonos product after the S2 rollout, and I now have a mix of eleven Denon and Marantz receivers driving both built-in, freestanding, and outdoor speakers of my choice all over my house.
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Re:Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle by simondotau on Tuesday January 14, 2025 @12:44AM (#42694097)
So basically the only USP of Sonos is mindshare.
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Re:Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle by bluescrn on Tuesday January 14, 2025 @03:55AM (#42695149)
They had a fairly unique and high-quality product in the early days.

It just did’t evolve very far or very fast, or even adapt pricing to better fit a rapidly changing market.

They switched away from multi-room hi-fi (or at least mid-fi) audio and users with their own hoard of digital audio to focus more on streaming services and chase the trend of little monophonic speakers. The higher-end devices remained good but ever more niche.

Then they broke everything, particularly customer trust, with the app update.

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Re:Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle by kdmtctl on Tuesday January 14, 2025 @02:21AM (#42694671)
This probably costs a fortune. Certainly there is a market.
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Re:Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle by baq on Tuesday January 14, 2025 @03:17AM (#42694949)
HEOS is amazing for the size of the dev team, which I think is a couple folks somewhere in a large garage in Minnesota[0]. The amount of things they never touch is amazing. I appreciate the stability - my HEOS 1 speaker is still working, streaming tunein and tidal without issues - but when it comes to the app, it's borderline stagnation at this point.

[0] I have no idea what it is actually

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Re:Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle by Newlaptop on Tuesday January 14, 2025 @01:08AM (#42694256)
Heh, this thread reminded me that I own Sonos speakers that I haven't used in several years because at some point they updated and I needed to install an app or make an account or something to use them and never did.

So while it's maybe neat that they solved fringe use cases, it's unfortunate that they failed at the basic use case of "just easily play audio from my phone"

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Re:Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after app update debacle by iamacyborg on Tuesday January 14, 2025 @04:56AM (#42695543)
Look into Roon.
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