The botched launch of a new Sonos app has hurt the company where it matters most, it’s bottom line according to Sonos CEO Patrick Spence who overnight reported a fall in revenues during the last nine month with the Company cancelling the launch of new products scheduled for later this year as they attempt to fix serious issues with Sonos sound systems due to the flaky app roll out.
The good news is that revenues for the quarter are up 6.4% following the launch of the Companies new Ace headphones with Asia Pacific finally able to lift sales from US$16.1M last year to $21.6M as of June 2024 for the nine months revenues in Asia Pacific fell from US$70.5 to $63.3.
Overall revenues for the quarter were $397M Vs $373M for the same quarter last year with nine-month revenues falling from US$1.3 billion to $1.26 billion, shares fell almost 4% on the news.
Net income in the last quarter was US$3,7M Vs a loss of $23.5M in the same quarter last year.
For the Nine months Net Income fell from $20.9M to $14.97M.
Spence said the new Ace headphones helped spur “year over year revenue growth” that slightly exceeded the company’s expectations; however this was “overshadowed” by ongoing problems with the redesigned Sonos app which is critical for anyone buying a Sonos product.
is now delaying hardware releases that were originally pencilled in for later this year as it deploys an all-hands-on-deck approach to fixing the app.
“With the app, my push for speed backfired,” Spence said.
“As we rolled out the new software to more and more users, it became evident that there were stubborn bugs we had not discovered in our testing. As a result, far too many of our customers are having an experience that is worse than what they previously had.” he said.
Spence is due to address a conference call and we will bring you, his comments.
“We have a clear action plan to address the issues caused by our app as quickly as possible,” Spence continued.
“I’ve asked Nick Millington, the original software architect of the Sonos experience, to do whatever it takes to address the issues with our new app,” Spence said. Sonos board member Tom Conrad is helping to oversee the app improvement effort and “ensure” things stay on the right track.
The problem for Sonos was that the update didn’t just break things — it also removed a number of features that customers had come to depended on, and this led to some customers calling for a class action against the US audio Company.
Among the features broken by the botched app was the ability to edit a queue, or set a sleep timer, or manage music on local networks.
Then there was the issue of Sonos sound systems sluggish and unresponsive.
What really upset consumers according to social media threads was the lack of response by Sonos management in acknowledging problems with the app.
It wasn’t until late July that Spence publicly addressed the major meltdown and apologized to customers.
“I want to begin by personally apologizing for disappointing you,” Spence wrote in the July 25 letter.
