A disastrous redesign of Sonos’ mobile app that led to customer complaints, hurt sales and caused the delay of two major product launches cannot be fixed by reviving the speaker and headphone maker’s old app, Sonos’ CEO said. Patrick Spence said on Tuesday (August 20).
Since its launch in May, customers have complained that the updated app did not recognize existing Sonos speakers and could not set up new speakers or headphones. Earlier this month, Spence said the company was lowering its fourth-quarter revenue forecast and delaying the launch of two major new products while it focused on fixing the app.
Spence made these comments about the old app, which he refers to as “S2,” in an AMA discussion on Reddit after being asked if the company would make it available for customers to download again. He said a return to that app could actually make things worse.
“The trick, of course, is that Sonos isn’t just the mobile app, it’s also software that runs on your speakers and in the cloud,” Spence wrote on Reddit. “In the months since we launched the new mobile app, we’ve updated the software that runs on our speakers and in the cloud to the point where S2 today is less reliable and less stable than what you remember. After extensive testing, we reluctantly concluded that re-releasing S2 would make the issues worse, not better. I’m sure that’s disappointing. For me, it was disappointing.”
Sonos announced last week that it would lay off 6% of its global workforce — about 110 jobs — following its quarterly earnings announcement. Executives said they would invest $20 million to $30 million in improving the app, investing in customer support and other initiatives to win back disgruntled buyers.
