Sonos faces ongoing challenges as it lets go of 200 workers.

      Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

      Just a day after news leaked about a new potential Sonos project — a streaming box — fresh updates have emerged regarding the company. In an employee call, followed by a post on the Sonos website titled “Team Update: Changes to the Way We Operate,” interim CEO Tom Conrad announced a restructuring of the company. This will result in the layoffs of approximately 200 employees, which is about 12% of Sonos's workforce according to 2024 employment figures.

      In the statement released, Conrad reiterated what was mentioned during the earlier company call. “I've witnessed firsthand that we’ve become burdened by too many layers, complicating collaboration and decision-making unnecessarily. Today, we are reorganizing into flatter, smaller, and more focused teams throughout the company,” he stated. “Notably, we are restructuring our Product organization into functional groups for Hardware, Software, Design, Quality, and Operations, moving away from dedicated business units for specific product categories.”

      The aim of this restructuring is to create a more efficient development and support process. According to Conrad and feedback from employees, progress has been challenging, and this change intends to address those issues. “Being smaller and more focused will necessitate that we prioritize our work more effectively — recently, we've allowed too many projects to proceed with a lack of commitment. We’re going to resolve this as well,” he added, before discussing transition details for those impacted by the layoffs.

      It's well-known that the past nine to ten months have been difficult for Sonos — arguably the toughest period the company has faced. 2024 began on a promising note with the introduction of the Sonos Ace and a redesign of the app that serves as the central hub for all Sonos products and streaming services. However, as previously reported, the Sonos app update lacked essential features and was plagued by bugs, alienating a core group of long-time enthusiasts who had previously praised Sonos for its streaming capabilities.

      The loss of team members is always detrimental to a company. Nonetheless, for the sake of the organization and its customers, we hope this will mark a turning point in the challenges they’ve been facing, leading to a revival of success for Sonos.

      

      John Higgins is the Senior Editor of A/V at Digital Trends, overseeing the team’s coverage of all aspects of audio and video.

      Sonos CEO issues software apology: ‘We know we have work to do’

      Sonos CEO Patrick Spence issued a written apology to customers today regarding "significant problems with our new app." The apology, shared as images on multiple social media platforms, through an email to customers, and as written text (with added links) on Sonos' blog, acknowledges the various issues users have experienced since the Sonos app underwent a major update on May 7.

      As we have documented, the new app not only lacked basic features that users had come to enjoy but also functioned poorly.

      At this point, further criticism of Sonos feels more like a futile effort than anything else. The damage from the spring overhaul is already done, even though the company continues to slowly release improvements and fixes for its app. However, these incremental updates have not resolved the fact that, more often than not, the official Sonos app simply fails to function properly. Thus, it's time to explore third-party solutions, with SonoPhone emerging as a leading contender on iOS.

      We’ve discussed the Sonos Ace headphones extensively. Some discussions are straightforward, focusing on their performance and articulating our opinions. Other times, the conversations delve deeper, considering the significance of a specific model or its broader impact on the company.

      That has been the heart of our discussions regarding the Sonos Ace headphones, which have been under consideration for years. The discussions date back this far — and Sonos likely began development even earlier.