https://twitter.com/atomicthumbs/status/1210662988828442624
TL;DR: They have a "recycle mode" that starts an irreversible 21 day countdown, after which the device is permanently bricked. So much for sustainable design, unless that now means sustainable profits.
7 billion face palms wouldn't be enought to describe my reaction to this.
It adds a nice sense of drama in Sci-Fi etc movies when the implemented "self destruct" is irreversible.
Not so much in a audio product one owns.
It is beyond belief that anyone ever asked for this "feature". Who says, "Well, I'm done with this $500 piece of gear so I guess I'd better deactivate it so that no one else will ever be able to use it again."? There must be a non-destructive way to remove any personal information from the device. Truly inconsistent with their brand and the values of their target market. Hopefully, most Sonos owners are smart enough to put a red piece of tape over the "Auto-Destruct" button.
"In 24 hours you must be 100 million miles out in space. The Krell furnaces... Chain reaction... They cannot be reversed."
Plus, it's economically stupid...
It reminds me of "Cash For Clunkers" which was mostly supposed to be an economic stimulus program with hopefully a side-benefit of people buying more fuel efficient cars. But as some wise common-sense economist pointed out (I don't remember who), "You don't improve the economy by destroying property."
Well there's improving the economy and then there's improving the company's bottom line. I don't think this was intended as a feature either, so no one had to "ask" for it. Sonos has always struck me as even worse than Apple at controlling the devices you own, but this is ridiculous. It seems they disable their own devices by blacklisting them on their end, so does that mean you can't even use them without logging them into Sonos, even when they're not in "recycle" mode?
The program sounds less bad as presented on Sonos’s web site: Recycle Mode is apparently offered only for older products which won’t be supported for much longer, and it’s done in conjunction with receiving non-expiring trade-in credit from Sonos for newer products. Still, it seems a shame that you can’t simply drop in a newer CPU into the things, and it’s a reminder that “smart” products are subject to rapid obsolescence.
While they do try to spin it as something for older no longer supported products, that in itself is a huge issue. "Whoops sorry, your otherwise perfectly fine speakers and amplifiers in your Sonos product are no longer supported by our services, and you can't use them without our services, so you'll have to throw them out and buy new ones".
Speakers and electronics last for decades, there is no reason to throw them out, this is pure planned obsolescence, and why I will never buy any "smart" products.
But wait, there’s more!
https://twitter.com/therealfitz/status/1219656757242474496
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EO0XWrgXUAAs2EN?format=png&name=large)
Well their CEO sent this:
https://blog.sonos.com/en/a-letter-from-our-ceo/
And based on it, it seems logical, at least to me. I personally don't expect a software product to receive new features indefinitelly, just as you cannot install windows 10 on a 486.
They say they will still release bugfixes as best as they can.
I do not consider an amplifier or stereo component to be a "software product", even if it does run software.