Re: Strange
I believe the underlying HW in the older products do not have the processing power for newer features. So I think they might need to spend money qualifying newer products with the older feature sets, and when the newer features cause problems with the older ones, there is not much that can be done.
Most of the comments about "i can do this with a Pi" are dumb, because none of those are wirelessly synced multi room audio on hw from a pi v1 generation. I can only imagine none use a sonos or have even bothered to try one, and think it is the same as (one) alexa echo.
Sonos weren't sold as smart speakers, it had no voice assistant, they were wireless *multi channel* speaker products. The alexa/google assistant integration are a recent feature of the newer products.
That feature - wireless multi speaker synced audoio setups - is now being commoditised by Amazon, Google etc because the data harvesting there "subsidises" the engineering costs. If you note you cannot easily control those devices without the voice UI.
Some of the other comments seems to imply obsolscence cannot happen in this industry.
I think the problem here isn't planned obsolescence but how best to manage obsolescence. The support subscription model is a sensible option, much like extended warranties.
I would really like that for my phone for eg.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
