Sonos CEO steps down after smart speaker app upgrade hit bum note
- Reference: 1736835309
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/01/14/sonos_ceo_steps_down/
- Source link:
Sonos teased the software in an [1]April 2024 announcement headlined “Sonos Unveils Completely Reimagined Sonos App, Bringing Services, Content and System Controls to One Customizable Home Screen.”
Spence’s canned quote about the app stated: “After thorough development and testing, we are confident this redesigned app is easier, faster and better. It once again raises the bar for the home music listening experience, and sets up our ability to expand into new categories and experiences.”
[2]
He was wrong.
[3]
[4]
When the app emerged in May 2024, we [5]reported , immediate and vociferous complaints that the app was buggy, offered a degraded user experience, was almost impossible to work with for the vision impaired, and omitted features that users liked.
Sonos even admitted it did not intend to remove those features and missed some other bugs that riled customers as they wrestled with a disappointing app.
[6]Judge tosses Sonos's $32.5M patent win over Google with savage slam down
[7]Oh Sonos! App update borks users' favorite features and worse
[8]Nice smart device – how long does it get software updates?
[9]Linus Torvalds offers to build guitar effects pedal for kernel developer
On its fiscal 2024 earnings call, Spence shared news that annual revenue had gone backwards by four percent, and admitted one reason for that result was “we mishandled the rollout of our new app.”
He promised that Sonos would henceforth “always establish rigorous quality benchmarks at the outset of product development and not launching products before meeting these criteria”, do more testing, introduce major changes more slowly, and even appoint a “quality ombudsperson”.
[10]
“We are confident these [actions] will ensure that we never make a misstep like this again,” he told investors, and would result in “regaining the trust of our customers.”
Those fine words were put on the record on November 13th. Two months later and it appears Sonos’s board doesn’t think Spence could turn them into reality as the company on Monday [11]announced the CEO had stepped down, effective immediately, and would be replaced by interim CEO and current director Tom Conrad.
Board chair Julius Genachowski’s said Conrad has a mandate to “improve the Sonos core experience for our customers, while optimizing our business to drive innovation and financial performance.”
[12]
Which sounds a lot like the software situation was still hurting Sonos, although the announcement of Spence’s departure states it was “unrelated to the Company’s fiscal first quarter results”, which will be announced on February 6th,
A [13]filing [PDF] reveals that Spence will be paid $7,500 a month until June 30th, and will offer strategic advisory services to ensure a smooth handover until that date. He’ll walk away with a $1,875,000 severance payment too, and keep his stock options.
Conrad will be paid $175,000 each month, and $2.65 million in stock. His canned quote includes a pledge to “focus on delivering extraordinary experiences for our customers and strong results for our shareholders.” ®
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[1] https://investors.sonos.com/news-and-events/investor-news/latest-news/2024/Sonos-Unveils-Completely-Reimagined-Sonos-App-Bringing-Services-Content-and-System-Controls-to-One-Customizable-Home-Screen/default.aspx
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z4ZD2Yp0bT2mC0zlRIc6sAAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z4ZD2Yp0bT2mC0zlRIc6sAAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z4ZD2Yp0bT2mC0zlRIc6sAAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/20/sonos_app_update_borks_users/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/judge_sonos_google_patent/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/20/sonos_app_update_borks_users/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/16/smart_device_software_support/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/13/linus_torvalds_guitar_pedal_offer/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z4ZD2Yp0bT2mC0zlRIc6sAAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://investors.sonos.com/news-and-events/investor-news/latest-news/2025/Sonos-Announces-CEO-Transition/default.aspx
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z4ZD2Yp0bT2mC0zlRIc6sAAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001314727/16274c2e-b225-480e-b79c-ecd16dfa3a9a.pdf
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "henceforth “always establish rigorous quality benchmarks
“improve the Sonos core experience for our customers, while optimizing our business to drive innovation and financial performance.”
Sonos already have a bad record of bricking 'end of life' devices or disallowing re-registration for ones which have been sold on to other people, creating the completely avoidable problem of creating landfill in the pursuit of profits. Not sure how that can possibly improve any of their customers experience, nor how that is in any way innovative, but hey, it's forcing people to buy more of their shit so that's a win.
For me, any company which issues a press release that links any presumed benefits for their customers with a reference to potential future profits is to be avoided.
Re: "henceforth “always establish rigorous quality benchmarks
They sound like Microsoft......
Re: "henceforth “always establish rigorous quality benchmarks
It's not just that nobody is responsible for monitoring the quality of the replacement software, it's that anyone who talks about errors or gaps in the new product is shouted down, sidelined as not being committed, or flat out fired. All you can do sometimes is sit back with popcorn and wait for it to fail.
$7,500 a month
No doubt they only employ the brightest and best (just like every other business...)
Re: $7,500 a month
I remember working with one of the "brightest and best" once (or so my employer thought when they recruited him based on the university he went to).
His technical documentation was written at the level of a five or six year old writing "what I did on my holidays" at school.....
Re: $7,500 a month
In a previous employer we had a policy of only interviewing candidates with at least an MSc.
I asked them at the first stage of interview to write about their journey to the interview. I gave then a pencil and paper and left them in the room for 5 minutes.
It certainly weeded out a few who had no idea how to write a coherent narrative.
One of them complained when in a later one-to-one session with my manglement and I was hauled before HR for demeaning the interviewees. Pointing out that I was checking their writing ability and logical thought was not enough to spare me the reprimand :-(
The HR droids would have probably failed my simple test as well!
Re: $7,500 a month
I've used simple tests like that as well and it is very illuminating and as long as everyone is tested and scored fairly there shouldn't be a problem.
Often in jobs it's more important to see someone's thinking so I've used questions in interviews which are very difficult to answer or don't have a single or clear answer. I want to see the reasoning and logic in an attempted answer even if it might be wrong.
Re: $7,500 a month
I asked them at the first stage of interview to write about their journey to the interview. I gave then a pencil and paper and left them in the room for 5 minutes.
Any bonus marks for starting the narrative in medias res ?
You would be lucky to receive a cogent paragraph giving the instructions for boiling an egg (or in some cases water) from most of the population.
I thought of something similar namely a reading comprehension task drawn from a relevant technical domain followed by the production of a written précis of the material. (Writing effective targetted summaries is hard and mostly a lost art.)
There are a good many people with whom I have worked that I would not risk leaving unsupervised with a sharp pencil.
Going to be more common with smart devices
They make a handsome profit on the initial sale, but a loss on backend compute resources needed to keep the product "smart". They could charge a realistic fee for the cloudy stuff instead of pretending it's free, or just open source it and let the geeks come up with a way. Shelly do this with their switches and stuff, and it is a joy to work with.
Software testing
Yeah, we've heard of it
CEOs rewarded for failure, peasants told to collect their P45s on their way out
"Spence will be paid $7,500 a month until June 30th, and will offer strategic advisory services to ensure a smooth handover until that date. He’ll walk away with a $1,875,000 severance payment too, and keep his stock options."
Yeah, that'll stick it to him and make sure he never makes a mistake like that again! Whilst sunning himself on his yacht off the coast of Tahiti no doubt.
Here's some free strategic advice for the pillocks that "run" Sonos: ignore everything Spence says - he's a proven idiot.
"henceforth “always establish rigorous quality benchmarks
at the outset of product development""
Note the use of the future tense in this sentence.
In the 3rd decade of the 21st century yet another company discovers the "Second system" effect described in FE Brooks [1]book in 1975
And (Oh gosh) it appears no one was responsible for monitoring the quality of the software in the upgrade.
Or of checking if it delivered on spec they'd worked out (that's the "Validation" in "Verification and Validation" BTW)
Note this is not startup. They already got a product which it seems people liked (note that past tense).
I've got one of these. I found it in a heap of rubbish and couldn't work out what it was or did. Got some interesting parts. Keypad, USB port, microphone, speaker. Waterproof casing. Rechargeable battery as no power block?
[1] https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+mythical+man+month&ref=nav_bb_sb