CNET: Logitech leaves Squeezebox fans wondering what's next

[jimzak]

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33199_7...ng-whats-next/

[erland]

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33199_7...ng-whats-next/

Regarding official information, for what it's worth, I think the official response from Logitech is the one found here:
http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Squeez...io/td-p/884530

Which says:

The team is working hard on releasing in a few weeks an optional software update for existing Squeezebox Radio users. This update will allow Squeezebox Radios to upgrade to the new Logitech UE Smart Radio experience.

Rest assured that the Squeezebox platform you’ve been enjoying over the years will continue to provide you access to a rich world of music and we’ll continue to address any questions or troubleshooting on our Logitech.com support page:http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support/speakers-audio

And we also have the unofficial response from mherger found here:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...l=1#post714295

Finally, Logitech have never previously and will likely never in the future comment on future products or services, which is really what most of us are asking them to do but it's something they will never do. It would have been better if they had announced a UE Smart Radio and a US Smart Touch at the same time, but I can also understand that it was important for them to at least get one product out before the Christmas season so they didn't want to delay all products until they had a more complete UE family (if that's their plan).

The information in both the above sources makes me personally satisfied as I believe it means that Logitech will maintain Squeezebox long enough for someone else to provide an alternative that fills the hole they have left. Even though I don't think it's likely, they might fill it themselves with new products in the UE Smart Radio family, but if they don't someone else eventually will. If there is a need and a market, there is a potential business for someone.

[menno]

The information in both the above sources makes me personally satisfied as I believe it means that Logitech will maintain Squeezebox long enough for someone else to provide an alternative that fills the hole they have left. Even though I don't think it's likely, they might fill it themselves with new products in the UE Smart Radio family, but if they don't someone else eventually will. If there is a need and a market, there is a potential business for someone.

I dont know. The fact they have not informed us their long-time customers of this news, and the fact we have to find out via forums or cnet is pretty poor in my view.

I certainly dont feel like that this is the way for a company to treat it's loyal customers.

We deserve an official announcement at the very least.

[erland]

I dont know. The fact they have not informed us their long-time customers of this news, and the fact we have to find out via forums or cnet is pretty poor in my view.

I certainly dont feel like that this is the way for a company to treat it's loyal customers.

We deserve an official announcement at the very least.

Generally I agree with you, but they have posted an official statement in the official forums which I linked to in the previous post.

I'm not sure it would make me any happier if they specified a time and said they would keep mysqueezebox.com runing for 2, 5 or 10 years. Independent which it's pretty pointless information to specify a time, what really matters is if they are active and also maintain it through bug corrections, something they haven't even done in all places during the last year while they still sold Squeezeboxes. For example the LMA app has been broken the last 6 months according to this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...for-6-months!!

What we need isn't an announcement, it's a lot better if we start to see indications that they actually correct bugs in the LMS code base and in the Squeezebox firmware, and this is something that actually started to happen when they announced the UE Smart Radio after months of silence: https://github.com/Logitech/slimserv...its/public/7.8

Time will tell if it was just a temporary effort or if they also plan to continue fixing a bug or two every week also in the future.

[DaveWr]

I might give them the benefit of the doubt, but since they seem capable of writing (email) to me to sell me new products, it shouldn't have been that difficult to inform me of the Squeezebox news.

Frankly if this is their approach to systems sales with dependencies on their server, and consequently their policies, I would suggest people seriously consider whether they should commit to the new products with a long term warranted provision of service. I certainly wouldn't, once bitten, twice shy is the English expression. They don't provide customer service, why would
I trust them as an internet services company.

Dave

[verypsb]

... once bitten, twice shy is the English expression. They don't provide customer service, why would
I trust them as an internet services company.

Dave

+!