Facepalm: Sonos, which boasts a person base of roughly 15.3 million households, was as soon as identified for delivering dependable merchandise. Nonetheless, the corporate not too long ago stunned many by rolling out a poorly functioning app redesign earlier this 12 months. Initially reluctant to acknowledge the problems, Sonos is now scrambling to deal with buyer considerations. But, with gross sales persevering with to say no from their peak in 2021, these efforts could show to be too little, too late.
In just some months, Sonos has discovered itself in deep trouble. The corporate not too long ago introduced the termination of 100 workers, elevating considerations about its future path, as these cuts have an effect on vital areas reminiscent of engineering and buyer help.
Moreover, Sonos has postponed the launch 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 Could 2024, which has overshadowed the corporate’s different accomplishments. The brand new app lacks important options like sleep timers, alarms, and the flexibility to handle native music libraries and playlists. Customers 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 scenario turned so problematic that CEO Patrick Spence was finally compelled to subject an apology after initially downplaying the extent of the problems.
“We all know that too lots of you have got skilled vital issues with our new app, which rolled out on Could 7, and I wish to start by personally apologizing for disappointing you,” Spence wrote in an e-mail to clients. “I guarantee you that fixing the app for all of our clients and companions has been, and continues to be, our primary precedence.”
Regardless of the challenges, Spence defended the choice to rebuild the Sonos app from the bottom up, arguing that it was needed for the corporate to innovate extra regularly and discover new product classes. Nonetheless, he reiterated his apology throughout a current earnings name. “Whereas the redesign of the app was and stays the appropriate factor to do, our execution – my execution – fell in need of the mark.”
The scenario turned so dire that Sonos thought-about reintroducing its earlier cell utility, S2, for Android and iOS, whereas the corporate labored to repair the bugs within the new design. Nonetheless, that plan was not too long ago scrapped.
In a Reddit AMA this week, Spence revealed that he had been optimistic “till very not too long ago” about the potential for reintroducing the previous app. After additional analysis, although, he famous that bringing again the earlier model would seemingly exacerbate the present points.
Fixing the redesign issues may value between $20 and $30 million within the brief time period, in accordance with Spence. In the meantime, the brand new app is receiving updates each two weeks, a schedule that can proceed by the autumn.
It is arduous to overstate how far Sonos has fallen in current months. As soon as a revered client tech model, the corporate is now a cautionary story concerning 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. Though 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.
