Already in May, the American audio equipment manufacturer Sonos has updated its app and received many criticism from its long-standing customers. According to an article by Digital music newsthe update removed many features that had been present in the app for several years. Some of the features removed from the app include the “shuffle function” from the combined library, no more volumes, timers and alarms, and no EQ controls. The unpopularity of the update later prompted Sonos CEO Patrick Spence to apologize, and a few days ago the company announced that it was no longer supporting the app. confirmed dismissals Around 100 employees are affected.
The reason for the layoffs at Sonos
The layoffs at Sonos also come as the company continues to resolve the impact of updates released in May. According to a post by The HR DigestThe numerous bugs, missing features, accessibility issues and other disruptions caused by the app update disrupted the overall workflow of the various departments within the company. On the day of the layoffs at Sonos, the 100 employees immediately lost access to their work. This meant that these employees only later learned that they were on the layoff list and were immediately fired by Sonos. The recent layoffs at Sonos are not the first time the company has experienced such a situation. In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it had to lay off 12% of its workforce, and in 2023 it laid off another 7%.
So far, the manufacturer has not presented a plan on how to get the app running efficiently again. The layoffs even caused Sonos to halt two product launches so the company could give developers more time to fix the app. There are also rumors that the app could return to its old version, which many customers liked. CEO Patrick Spence then emphasized the goal of improving the app to much higher quality standards. The CEO said: “Our ongoing commitment to app recovery and customer satisfaction remains our priority, and we are confident that today’s actions will not impact our ability to deliver on that promise.“.
