I wrote an impassioned plea to them as a user with a pretty major investment in Sonos (say why you like, we love the system) and as a shareholder, expressing my disappointment with recent moves.

This is the response I got from them. Note: I did not accuse them of bricking my devices. Also note: they are promising the gradual degradation of my experience. There is no commitment to support, nor willingness to open source or find other remedies (or even pay them for continued support, which I offered in my letter).

Of last note: we have decided to dump Sonos permanently and will actively avoid doing business with the company again. It’s a fairly tone-deaf response unfortunately.

Curious if others are as unhappy as we are? We are just disappointed.

Anyways, the response:

Thank you for contacting Sonos Customer Care. I understand your frustration with the end of software updates announcement. Please know that we in no way mean to render your system inoperable or brick the devices. The trade-up program you mentioned bricking units is entirely voluntary and a multi-step process to ensure it is not mistakenly activated on the system.

Your devices are not being end-of-lifed by any means; they are simply not receiving new update information beyond a certain version. This is due to the available memory and processing power available in our legacy line of devices. This is specifically what separates them from modern and legacy. The Legacy devices have hit a point where in order to keep allowing new features; we would have to remove old features because there is simply no room left to store the new data for newer technologies or changes in outdated technologies no longer used by our partners. It is similar to having all seats on a plane full and telling someone already boarded that they need to get off. To keep your system functioning as it stands; we need to halt the progression of the software.

Once the change is made, your Sonos system will no longer receive regular updates, so your experience will initially remain the same. However, the functionality of features and services will be impacted as technology evolves over time. The thing to worry about once this takes place is the third party services and partners offered through our platform. Using Spotify as an example; if they change something in the way Sonos accesses their service then your System not receiving new updates will not be able to accommodate this.

However, since this won't be in effect until May of 2020; we are still working on figuring out workarounds and things of that nature for all of our customers who will possibly be affected by this change. Just keep an eye out on alerts from us. Once we do have that information, we will gladly share that with you.

More information here: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4798

Our commitment is to support products with software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting for longer.

The Trade-Up eligible devices all have newer counterparts that allow the old connection types while also integrating new features. The best example of this is the Sonos Connect:AMP and AMP devices; the Connect:AMP was not designed with Home Theater in mind where the AMP has an input for a TV source without removing any of the existing connection options that the Connect:AMP had; while also integrating the airplay functionality into the device and system.