Sonos postpones launch of Arc soundbar successor to focus on fixing app issues

According to Sonos’ CEO, the company will postpone the release of two major products originally planned for later this year to focus on improving the quality of its app.

In his third-quarter earnings call, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence told investors it was “deeply disappointing for me personally” that the company had been on track for the first three quarters of the year but then revised its fourth-quarter expectations due to “challenges with our new app.”

Sonos released its redesigned app in May, featuring a customizable home screen and a more personalized listening experience, but Sonos customers quickly discovered that the app was missing several key features and suffered from numerous bugs. On social media, the app was called a “step back” because it lacked playlist management, alarms and other features.

As a result of the app problems, the Sonos boss canceled two major product releases – one of which is likely to be the successor to Sonos’ flagship soundbar Arc, according to The edge – time would now be saved to focus on improving the company’s software.

Spence told investors:

“The app situation has become a headwind to existing product sales, and we believe we need to focus on the app before anything else,” said Spence. “This means we need to delay the two major new product releases we had planned for the fourth quarter until our app experience reaches the level of quality that we, our customers and our partners expect from Sonos. While this has the painful effect of lowering our fourth quarter revenue expectations, we believe it will set up our future products for greater success in the medium to long term.”

Spence reiterated an overview of future feature plans that he outlined in an apology to users last month. Sonos plans to release updates every two weeks. Planned plans include alarms being addressed in September, while playlist editing mode and a queue will be available in September or October.

Spence said Sonos is working hard to regain customer trust through continuous app improvements. “I want to reiterate that the entire team and I are committed to getting this right with our customers and partners,” he added. “This is my main focus and I will not rest until we resolve these issues and have customers raving about Sonos again.”