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To focus on one product: the original play:5 came out Nov 2009 (which is impacted here). The replacement came out in Sep 2015. For a company that builds their

To focus on one product: the original play:5 came out Nov 2009 (which is impacted here). The replacement came out in Sep 2015. For a company that builds their brand loyalty on keeping existing customers happy with their purchases (via OTA updates and slow replacement frequency), 4.5 years isn't long enough in my opinion—hopefully there weren't a ton of play:5 buyers in that final year. Forever isn't reasonable either of course with how heavily cloud based they are. I think it should be closer to 10. It's a little hard to imagine 2010 devices keeping up in 2020, but I'm sure that 2030 will be kinder to 2020 hardware. In the same way a 1995 laptop is far less capable than a 2005 compared to 2015. I think they could make that commitment. I give Sonos a longer time I would others because they justify their price tag based on how unlikely you are to have to replace it. Rather—that's how I justified all of mine. And they should be up front with what that duration will be when you buy it.

sundaeofshock 7y ago
My dad’s JBL speakers from 1970 still sound great and he has options for streaming music if he was so inclined. I wouldn’t be impressed with a decade of use out of a speaker.
- dickeytk 7y ago
  You’re not in Sonos’s target market if you want it to last 50 years. That’s fine. All the more reason they should be explicit so the consumer knows what they’re buying. I certainly don’t mind 10 year lifecycle even if that bothers you.
PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
My squeezebox/logitech devices from the early 2000's are still working fine in 2020. Open source server software too.
- dickeytk 7y ago
  I don’t understand your point. I’m trying to argue companies should be up front about minimum support length at purchase. Is it that 10 years isn’t long enough?
  - PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
    You said "It's a little hard to imagine 2010 devices keeping up in 2020, but I'm sure that 2030 will be kinder to 2020 hardware.". I'm saying (as are others), that at least the first clause of this sentence seems wrong. It's not hard to imagine that at all.
lostlogin 7y ago
> but I'm sure that 2030 will be kinder to 2020 hardware. In the same way a 1995 laptop is far less capable than a 2005 compared to 2015. I think they could make that commitment. I’m less optimistic. I live in Mac land. We had a sweet spot in about 2010 when computers were good, and lasted really well. I don’t think I’ll see 10+ years out of today’s Macs, or many of my other purchases, and I specifically buy things to last. Another interest of mine is coffee, and looking to upgrade the espresso machine is depressing. Too much computerisation and plastic. My 20+ year old machine and older grinder are really hard to beat and are nice to work on, and even at significant cost I don’t think it would be an upgrade. Instead I’m looking backwards at 60’s and 70’s machines. How did it get like this?
- dickeytk 7y ago
  You’re talking about durability which is different. I’m talking about performance. Durability should not be a problem with these products. Frankly they feel super solid but more importantly they rarely even get touched (the interface is an app). They have a couple of touch sensitive buttons (volume and skip/prev only) but that’s it.
  - lysium 7y ago
    The problem IS durability, not the physics but the functionality just because the company decided to stop supporting the main function for the customer: playing music.
owenwil 7y ago
The problem is a little more complex, given that Sonos continued to sell the old Play:5 alongside the new one at a steep discount for a number of years. I purchased one in 2016, sold as new by the company, which gave me a good 3 years, but if you don't pay attention to such things as when it was originally released, would be infuriating news...
lysium 7y ago
These are speakers that play music. There is nothing „to keep up“. The network is still the same, the codecs are, everything. It’s ok if old products don’t have new features. It’s not ok if old products don’t work anymore just because the company feels like it.
- kevstev 7y ago
  This sums up my issue right here- its one thing if they said that they won't support holographic 8k audio or whatever future thing they come up with, but I can't understand what they would need more memory for in the end devices, when their job since the day I got them, and all I ask them to do until the day I decide to replace them, is take a stream of music, and play it. The "hard" stuff should all be in my sonos app, which is on my ever updating phone.

sundaeofshock 7y ago

My dad’s JBL speakers from 1970 still sound great and he has options for streaming music if he was so inclined. I wouldn’t be impressed with a decade of use out of a speaker.

dickeytk 7y ago
You’re not in Sonos’s target market if you want it to last 50 years. That’s fine. All the more reason they should be explicit so the consumer knows what they’re buying. I certainly don’t mind 10 year lifecycle even if that bothers you.

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago

My squeezebox/logitech devices from the early 2000's are still working fine in 2020. Open source server software too.

dickeytk 7y ago
I don’t understand your point. I’m trying to argue companies should be up front about minimum support length at purchase. Is it that 10 years isn’t long enough?
- PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
  You said "It's a little hard to imagine 2010 devices keeping up in 2020, but I'm sure that 2030 will be kinder to 2020 hardware.". I'm saying (as are others), that at least the first clause of this sentence seems wrong. It's not hard to imagine that at all.

lostlogin 7y ago

> but I'm sure that 2030 will be kinder to 2020 hardware. In the same way a 1995 laptop is far less capable than a 2005 compared to 2015. I think they could make that commitment. I’m less optimistic. I live in Mac land. We had a sweet spot in about 2010 when computers were good, and lasted really well. I don’t think I’ll see 10+ years out of today’s Macs, or many of my other purchases, and I specifically buy things to last. Another interest of mine is coffee, and looking to upgrade the espresso machine is depressing. Too much computerisation and plastic. My 20+ year old machine and older grinder are really hard to beat and are nice to work on, and even at significant cost I don’t think it would be an upgrade. Instead I’m looking backwards at 60’s and 70’s machines. How did it get like this?

dickeytk 7y ago
You’re talking about durability which is different. I’m talking about performance. Durability should not be a problem with these products. Frankly they feel super solid but more importantly they rarely even get touched (the interface is an app). They have a couple of touch sensitive buttons (volume and skip/prev only) but that’s it.
- lysium 7y ago
  The problem IS durability, not the physics but the functionality just because the company decided to stop supporting the main function for the customer: playing music.

owenwil 7y ago

The problem is a little more complex, given that Sonos continued to sell the old Play:5 alongside the new one at a steep discount for a number of years. I purchased one in 2016, sold as new by the company, which gave me a good 3 years, but if you don't pay attention to such things as when it was originally released, would be infuriating news...

lysium 7y ago

These are speakers that play music. There is nothing „to keep up“. The network is still the same, the codecs are, everything. It’s ok if old products don’t have new features. It’s not ok if old products don’t work anymore just because the company feels like it.

kevstev 7y ago
This sums up my issue right here- its one thing if they said that they won't support holographic 8k audio or whatever future thing they come up with, but I can't understand what they would need more memory for in the end devices, when their job since the day I got them, and all I ask them to do until the day I decide to replace them, is take a stream of music, and play it. The "hard" stuff should all be in my sonos app, which is on my ever updating phone.