Recognizing Sonos - Redeeming the App
I officially declare the app has fully returned to a high quality state. Two years ago was a dark dark time but over the past month some of the final elements have come nicely into place. I can now still see my queue even when I switch to a radio station, the app is now also designed for iPad making it much more elegant, the prompt to warn you that you will replace your queue when clicking on a new song or album (very practical) and returning “related artists” to the options within Spotify when exploring an artist. Those were my last hold out/missing features and they all returned in the space of the last month I think. I had written in multiple forums about all of these for a long time and it seemed like they were being ignored and would not return. Most of them were quite sensible so I felt a bit frustrated.
I want to thank the CEO and management for their continued efforts to restore old features fully and introduce new ones such as the ability to pin rooms and that cool volume knob. Additionally my system has been rock solid in terms of reliability with little to no drop outs. We complain when things go wrong but we must also pay tribute when things go right.
I had become so disenchanted with the company in 2024 that I sold all my shares in the company as the debacle boggled my mind. I really could not understand what would cause such a historically sensible company to release such a half baked product - even if you wanted to maintain product release velocity.
But the company has done a great job in finally closing that chapter. I will let Sonos live it down.
One area I do think needs a bit more strength though is in the marketing. A great system deserves a more forceful and effective marketing campaign. I recognize the effort with the latest campaign centered around the “system” but it comes across as a bit tentative and underfunded. You have great products and system - do more to market it boldly and clearly.
Cheers