I'm sure Sonos can't wait for 2024 to be over. What was supposed to be a triumphant year, featuring some crucial new product categories such as the excellent-for-movies (though not for the rest of your Sonos multi-room system) Sonos Ace headphones, has been marred by the months-long saga of the 2024 Sonos app.
And a new report says that with the app still unfinished, Sonos is considering the nuclear option: bringing the old app back.
That doesn't mean Sonos plans to scrap the new app, or to quit its current fortnightly update schedule. But at least some people high up in the company food chain believe that bringing the old app back could give Sonos a bit of breathing room while it continues to sort out the newer, more cloud-based system.
Why Sonos could bring the old app back
While Sonos CEO Patrick Spence remains committed to the new app, he admits that its launch has been disastrous – not just for the firm's reputation but for its finances too: speaking to investors last week he suggested that it'll cost a further $20 to $30 million to get the app where Sonos and its customers want it to be.
The multi-room audio pioneer has already delayed two product launches this year, most likely the Sonos Arc 2 (which is reportedly still being worked on under the codename Lasso) and another, as yet unannounced new product.
That was not the plan for this year: Sonos was expecting to bring in significant revenues from its new products in the second half of 2024 – aka the long-awaited harvest on its April 2022 acquisition of speaker manufacturer, Mayht Holding BV. (For more in-depth info on this, read TechRadar's interview with Brandon Holley, Product Creation Lead at Sonos last year. But in a nutshell, plans at the end of 2023 included a new high-end amplifier code-named ‘Premier’ for the second half of 2024, new 8-inch in-ceiling speakers and a subwoofer code-name ‘Lotus’ as well as the Arc 2, none of which we've seen thus far.)
Bringing the app back might not be as simple as it sounds, but if Sonos decides to go ahead with its resurrection it could provide some much-needed breathing room: we continue to see messages from unhappy Sonos customers whose apps still don't deliver features they consider crucial, and as you can see from the very low rating on Google Play – currently 1.2 stars after over 200,000 reviews – there are plenty of underwhelmed Sonos customers out there. While each update improves the app, that's not enough for some.
Bringing back the old app would hopefully mollify those customers, many of whom believe Sonos effectively forced an unwanted downgrade on them when it introduced the 2024 app. And it could be an important first step towards rebuilding a reputation that's taken a serious battering in the three months since the new app's initial launch.
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