Remember the Sonos "recycling" program? Deliberately brick old devices to get a discount on a new device.

I was looking for some speakers recently and ended up getting very traditional tower speakers instead of anything sonos because I'm confident they will continue to work pretty much forever.

Home Audio, in terms of speakers and amplifiers, was "solved" in the 1980's and 1990's. A lot of this equipment will last for decades, is serviceable, and isn't dependent on the cloud.

All of it has been solved though. Dumb screens, dumb speakers, removable batteries, etc.

Hell, even enclosed devices like the iPhone still last for almost a decade. I know, I had multiples ones in use for that long. So not being able to be serviced easily probably causes fewer problems than you’d think if people held on to devices for their maximum lifespan.

This is so true and you can buy high quality gear for cheap on Craigslist, Kijiji, VarageSale or your local garage sale.

In terms of the speakers and amplifiers, absolutely. The home audio game's more than that these days though. Smartphone-controlled multi-room audio is convenient, if pricy.

Shouldn't that be separate? If you buy a 10k speaker today, it's going to sound excellent in 10 years, but the software will long be dead, perhaps taking the speaker with it. Separating the smart from the speaker leads to cheap future upgrades of just the components you need.

its in your best interest if its separate, its in the manufacturer's best interest if you have to buy it again later.

I'm not a fan of planned obsolescence and I won't give money to sonos because of it. smartphone controlled multi room audio may be convenient, but I won't support it with dollars if it means perfectly working devices turn into bricks and get thrown in a landfill.

Did they unbrick them once you returned them and make even more profit?

Nope, no return you just throw the perfectly good equipment in the bin. The hardware was still really good and perfectly usable, just intentionally bricked by Sonos. Ultimate waste.

A shame as I have lots of sonos equipment and otherwise I think they are great and their kit has good support and lasts a long time.

I remembered that as reduce, reuse, recycle and had to look it up to see if there was a shift in priorities.

I’ve known organisations who trashed old computers and wouldn’t even let staff get pieces without the HD (if data leaks were their concern).

I guess all industries are pushing the recycling line and not the reuse part.

You also will struggle to find the latest software for enterprise equipment because updates are only for customers with support contracts. So you might be able to get an perfectly functional HPE server in the used market but there will be no legal way to update it with the latest bios and firmware.