![]() ![]() Google shut down its Revolv wireless hub in April 2016 and had to refund customers their money. NetGear, for example, discontinued its VueZone wireless home security video cameras in 2016 and shut down the cloud service, making the devices completely inoperable. It's also happened with completely healthy companies that decide a product line is no longer profitable. It's not just devices from companies that go insolvent, though. The device could no longer talk to the Rdio service, which also went belly-up in the same timeframe. Similarly, in December 2015, the Aether Cone, a smart speaker not unlike the Amazon Echo, was lobotomized and became a dumb Bluetooth speaker when the company's venture capital resources dried up. ![]() ![]() For instance, in March of last year, the Jibo robot ceased to function when its accompanying cloud service ceased operation. ![]() This scenario has happened far more than what is happening with Sonos. The availability of open firmware is essential when a manufacturer of such devices becomes insolvent. However, what was jarring about the way Sonos approached this end-of-product support for some of its devices is that it also affected products that have been recently introduced, such as the Beam connected soundbar. The reason why Sonos initially decided to end support is that these first-generation products lack sufficient processing power and storage to accommodate new features.Įnd of service is relatively normal for consumer electronics products that are five years old or more, particularly personal computers and mobile devices. SEE: 5G: What it means for IoT (ZDNet/TechRepublic special feature) | Download the free PDF version (TechRepublic) How Sonos handles end-of-life product support Users who trade in older Sonos systems immediately get a 30 percent discount-but their older hardware immediately enters a 21 day countdown before being put in “ recycle mode.” Products in recycle mode can’t be re-used or repurposed without Sonos’ permission-a wasteful outcome for a program Sonos claims was designed to minimize environmental impact.On Thursday, January 23, following a backlash from customers and the technology media, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence authored a corporate blog post apologizing for this end of support and stated that the company would, in fact, support its older products with bug and security fixes beyond May of 2020 even if new feature updates were not possible. Sonos’ second option, its trade-in program launched last October, came under fire just last month for being wasteful. The first option potentially opens customers up to security headaches in an era where internet of things devices are routinely hacked. Or users can trade in the older gear while nabbing a 30 percent discount on the purchase of a new Sonos system. In a blog post, Sonos says owners of these legacy systems have two options: they can simply keep using the products, understanding they won’t receive new features, bug fixes, or software and security updates. Users that have shelled out hundreds or thousands of dollars for smart speakers that still work didn’t take the news particularly well. “Legacy products were introduced between 20 and, given the age of the technology, do not have enough memory or processing power to sustain future innovation,” the company’s email claims. In the email, the company says that certain “ legacy” systems will stop receiving security and software updates starting in May. The latest example comes courtesy of Sonos, which this week informed customers in an email that it would no longer be supporting certain speaker systems. Instead, we’re shelling out big bucks for products that can easily lose features or worse-stop working entirely on the whim of a corporation. In the modern internet era, it’s increasingly clear that consumers no longer actually own the things we buy. ![]()
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