[x0x0]

Hard to say. I'd bet there was a decent chance the eng team stridently warned the execs about what would happen and got overruled.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/09/it-was-the-wrong-dec...

In particular

> Employees claimed that Sonos’ desire to get new customers and please investors was becoming more important than ensuring that old hardware would work properly with the new app.

That sure sounds like this was a deliberate choice.

That said, I suspect Sonos' market has mostly disappeared. A decade ago I paid $400+ to get streaming audio; now a lot of people are happy with Spotify Connect and $200 google speakers or a $50 refurb echo 4.

[bigfatkitten]

It sounds like a secondary effect. They made a whole ton of really bad design decisions that ruined the product for current hardware, with breaking compatibility with existing kit being icing on the cake.

[Nursie]

If the software wasn't a shitshow, they compete in that bracket now via the Ikea Symfonisk range.

They just really need to sort out the damn software.