Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos, is leaving his position, the speaker manufacturer announced on Monday. This departure follows the failure of the redesign of the Sonos mobile application, which had operational problems and to which customers reacted negatively. Tom Conrad succeeds him on an interim basis.
Last May, Sonos launched a new smartphone application allowing consumers to control its brand speakers. The interface turned out to be confusing and key functions stopped working. This created tension within the company for months. Customers are rightly disappointed, said the new interim boss in an email to staff. “I think we can all agree that we have disappointed far too many people,” he wrote.
gone wrong
The new app was supposed to have a more modern design and better support a range of new devices, but it went awry. The company looked into whether it could revert to the old app, but that proved technically impossible.
For some, Patrick Spence took too long to apologize to customers. The company has further delayed the launch of several products and other initiatives.
Since the app’s launch, Sonos shares have lost some 13% of their value and around 100 workers were laid off in August.
