Sonos Delays Two New Products, Blames Broken New App

Sonos is delaying the release of two new products this year until it can improve the quality of its horrible new app. The news came during an earnings announcement this week, but based on the most recent schedule for fixing the app, it’s likely that we won’t see those new products–whatever they are–until 2025.

Sonos reported that it earned a net income of $3.7 million on revenues of $397.1 million in the quarter ending June 29, 2024. The firm posted a loss in the year-ago quarter, but revenues are up 6.4 percent year-over-year.

Sonos launched its first-ever headphones, Sonos Ace, in the quarter. But no one is celebrating that: To get that product out the door, Sonos also replaced the meh but functional app its smart audio products require with an all-new but horribly broken replacement app that’s so full of functional regressions and bad user interfaces that it’s impossible to defend. And now there’s no end in sight for the company’s beleaguered customers, who face several months of waiting while Sonos slowly adds back the features its new app lacks and fixes the new bugs and UI problems it introduces.

Meaning, no one cares about the earnings. Which Sonos clearly knows.

“It’s so painful to let customers down the way we have with our new app. I am committed to making this right with our customers and partners,” Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said in his opening remarks during the company’s post-earnings conference call. “It’s the company’s number one focus right now, and I will not rest until we’re in a position where we’ve addressed the issues and have customers raving about Sonos again.”

Oh, they’re raving, Patrick. But, please. Continue.

“Since I took over as CEO, one of my particular points of emphasis has been the imperative for Sonos to move faster,” he added, after an explanation of why a new app was needed so that Sonos could create new categories of products. “That is what led to my promise to deliver at least two new products every year — a promise we have successfully delivered on. With the app, however, my push for speed backfired.”

“The app situation has become a headwind to existing product sales, and we believe our focus needs to be addressing the app ahead of everything else. This means delaying the two major new product releases we had planned for Q4 [the current quarter] until our app experience meets the level of quality that we, our customers, and our partners expect from Sonos. While this has the painful effect of reducing our Q4 sales expectations, we believe it will set our future products up for greater success over the medium to long term.”

Not surprisingly, the financial analysts on the call only wanted to focus on these two mysterious new products. And while Sonos doesn’t want to discuss any details for all the obvious reasons, Spence explained in an answer to one question that they were both “ready to be shipped” this quarter. So they would have been ready for the market in time for the 2024 holiday season, but now won’t be sold until October at the earliest (the start of the company’s next fiscal year). That date corresponds to the end of the app updating schedule that Spence previously revealed.

Sonos may not want to discuss those products–it only did so to explain why the results in the current quarter won’t meet expectations–but we have some clues: In late 2023, a massive leak revealed that Sonos planned to dramatically expand its product offerings this year. And in addition to the headphones it shipped in May, Sonos was prepping an Apple TV-like set-top box for the living room, a new soundbar, a new subwoofer, and high-end home theater equipment aimed at professional installers. All these products would dramatically expand its home theater footprint, and so it’s likely that at least some of them–surely, the set-top box–were set for release this quarter.

Not that it matters anymore: No one should trust this company or its leadership. The only meaningful changes Sonos can make now to “win back customers and partners” and “turn their dissatisfaction to delight” is to oust the CEO and his cronies, re-establish its broken relationship with Google, and move forward with an app that actually works. Anything else is just hot air.