Like many others in the last few days, I received an email from Sonos which had the title “your system needs some attention”

In May, the following products in your system will be classified as legacy and no longer receive software updates and new features. This will affect your listening experience.

As a family, we’ve spent quite a lot on these products over the years as we built out our system. Not only that, but I’ve personally recommended Sonos to others.

Remember this will affect the early adopters and the most loyal customers the most. The real kick in the teeth for us is the following statement.

Please note that because Sonos is a system, all products operate on the same software. If modern products remain connected to legacy products after May, they also will not receive software updates and new features.

Well. Fuck that.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of unhappy Sonos customers. A lot of negative publicity about the company is now hitting the media. I for one, will never buy another product from Sonos again.

Trust takes years to build, but an instant to destroy.

There is a bigger issue here though. How much of what we are buying that is supposedly “smart” will be obsolete much faster than we would have thought possible?

This reminds me of this story. For tech-weary Mid west farmers, 40 year old tractors are now a hot commodity. Why? Because they cost a fraction of the price of new tractors and problems can be fixed by the farmers themselves unlike the software loaded, super expensive new ones.

This has helped me make another decision. I’ve been looking at our old dumb TV thinking that it was beyond time to upgrade to a new Smart TV. But then, I started reading how the tracking and ad networks have got their claws in these TV’s.

Update: And fridges!

Maybe its smart to be dumb.