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Facepalm: Sonos, which boasts a user base of approximately 15.3 million households, was once known for delivering reliable products. However, the company recently surprised many by rolling out a poorly functioning app redesign earlier this year. Initially reluctant to acknowledge the issues, Sonos is now scrambling to address customer concerns. Yet, with sales continuing to decline from their peak in 2021, these efforts may prove to be too little, too late.
In just a few months, Sonos has found itself in serious trouble. The company recently announced the termination of 100 employees, raising concerns about its future direction, as these cuts affect critical areas such as engineering and customer support.
Additionally, Sonos has postponed the release of two major products. One is rumored to be the successor to the Sonos Arc soundbar, codenamed Lasso, while the other remains unspecified, with speculation pointing to a potential Apple TV competitor.
These delays stem from the disastrous mobile app redesign launched in May 2024, which has overshadowed the company's other accomplishments. The new app lacks essential features like sleep timers, alarms, and the ability to manage local music libraries and playlists. Users have also reported issues with the app's accessibility and stability, including frequent crashes and connectivity problems. The challenges have been further compounded by the app's reliance on new cloud services, which have proven unreliable.
The situation became so problematic that CEO Patrick Spence was eventually compelled to issue an apology after initially downplaying the extent of the issues.
"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 email to customers. "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 decision to rebuild the Sonos app from the ground up, arguing that it was necessary for the company to innovate more frequently and explore new product categories. However, he reiterated his apology during a recent earnings call. "While the redesign of the app was and remains the right thing to do, our execution – my execution – fell short of the mark."
The situation became so dire that Sonos considered reintroducing its previous mobile application, S2, for Android and iOS, while the company worked to fix the bugs in the new design. However, that plan was recently scrapped.
In a Reddit AMA this week, Spence revealed that he had been optimistic "until very recently" about the possibility of reintroducing the old app. After further evaluation, though, he noted that bringing back the previous version would likely exacerbate the current issues.
Fixing the redesign problems could cost between $20 and $30 million in the short term, according to Spence. Meanwhile, the new app is receiving updates every two weeks, a schedule that will continue through the fall.
It's hard to overstate how far Sonos has fallen in recent months. Once a respected consumer tech brand, the company is now a cautionary tale about the risks of aggressively pursuing new projects.
The launch of the company's first headphones, the Sonos Ace, underscores how much the failed redesign is consuming the company. Although the Ace headphones contributed to year-over-year revenue growth that slightly exceeded projections for the third quarter, Spence acknowledged that this success has been overshadowed by the ongoing issues with the redesigned app.