Facepalm: Sonos, which boasts a consumer base of roughly 15.3 million households, was as soon as recognized for delivering dependable merchandise. However, the corporate just lately shocked many by rolling out a poorly functioning app redesign earlier this 12 months. Initially reluctant to acknowledge the problems, Sonos is now scrambling to handle buyer issues. Yet, with gross sales persevering with to say no from their peak in 2021, these efforts could show to be too little, too late.
In only a few months, Sonos has discovered itself in deep trouble. The firm just lately introduced the termination of 100 staff, elevating issues about its future route, as these cuts have an effect on important areas akin to engineering and buyer assist.
Additionally, Sonos has postponed the discharge of two main merchandise. One is rumored to be the successor to the Sonos Arc soundbar, codenamed Lasso, whereas the opposite stays unspecified, with hypothesis pointing to a possible Apple TV competitor.
These delays stem from the disastrous cell app redesign launched in May 2024, which has overshadowed the corporate’s different accomplishments. The new app lacks important options like sleep timers, alarms, and the flexibility to handle native music libraries and playlists. Users have additionally reported points with the app’s accessibility and stability, together with frequent crashes and connectivity issues. The challenges have been additional compounded by the app’s reliance on new cloud providers, which have confirmed unreliable.
The state of affairs grew to become so problematic that CEO Patrick Spence was finally compelled to problem an apology after initially downplaying the extent of the problems.
“We know that too many of you have experienced significant problems with our new app, which rolled out on May 7, and I want to begin by personally apologizing for disappointing you,” Spence wrote in an e mail to prospects. “I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been, and continues to be, our number one priority.”
Despite the challenges, Spence defended the choice to rebuild the Sonos app from the bottom up, arguing that it was essential for the corporate to innovate extra regularly and discover new product classes. However, he reiterated his apology throughout a latest earnings name. “While the redesign of the app was and remains the right thing to do, our execution – my execution – fell short of the mark.”
The state of affairs grew to become so dire that Sonos thought-about reintroducing its earlier cell software, S2, for Android and iOS, whereas the corporate labored to repair the bugs within the new design. However, that plan was just lately scrapped.
In a Reddit AMA this week, Spence revealed that he had been optimistic “until very recently” about the opportunity of reintroducing the previous app. After additional analysis, although, he famous that bringing again the earlier model would doubtless exacerbate the present points.
Fixing the redesign issues might price between $20 and $30 million within the quick time period, in response to Spence. Meanwhile, the brand new app is receiving updates each two weeks, a schedule that may proceed by means of the autumn.
It’s laborious to overstate how far Sonos has fallen in latest months. Once a revered shopper tech model, the corporate is now a cautionary story in regards to the dangers of aggressively pursuing new tasks.
The launch of the corporate’s first headphones, the Sonos Ace, underscores how a lot the failed redesign is consuming the corporate. Although the Ace headphones contributed to year-over-year income development that barely exceeded projections for the third quarter, Spence acknowledged that this success has been overshadowed by the continued points with the redesigned app.
