(Bloomberg) — Sonos Inc. interim Chief Executive Officer Tom Conrad said the audio company has “turned the corner” following setbacks caused by software issues — and that he wants to be named to the top job permanently.
Most Read from Bloomberg
“I’m just feeling much more confident that we’ve turned the corner,” he said in an interview Friday. “We’ve made some real breakthroughs in the last 90 days on some deeply esoteric technical challenges.” The longtime board member stepped in as temporary chief in January after his predecessor, Patrick Spence, left following a failed app revamp mired the company in controversy.
Last year, Sonos overhauled its iOS and Android apps — along with the underlying software that connects its hardware — and users immediately complained about interface issues, networking problems and equipment not being able to properly play music. The glitches upset many consumers who, in some cases, spent tens of thousands of dollars on Sonos systems placed throughout their homes.
Conrad said the latest software release, pushed out this week, helps fix issues that have continued to hit older players — such as the Play 1 and Play 3 — unveiled over a decade ago. He said that releases coming out the rest of the year will help make Sonos’ software “better than it has been in five years.”
By spending the past few months fixing the underlying software, the company is now focusing on improving the app’s user experience, he said.
“Quantitatively today, the app performs better than the software it replaced,” he said, adding that upcoming releases across the summer and into early fall will “restore convention” to the user experience and improve usability. “I feel like we’re on a really good path here.”
The issues, he said, were difficult to fix because they were so wide-ranging. “It’s not like we made a straightforward set of mistakes where we could just go in and plug some obvious holes.”
Conrad credits the turnaround to restructuring the way the company operates. Sonos previously was organized by business units, meaning there was one team for every product line. Now, the company is structured by functionality, meaning it’s grouped into areas like hardware, software, design and operations. That mirrors Apple Inc.’s approach. (Besides sporting a Sonos tattoo, Conrad has one of a Mac on his arm.)
