Hive is a new Kickstarter home automation system that just launched.
Sounds like a lot of vapourware and like they have been trolling the forums here. Basically they are promoting the system that sounds like an integrated SmartThings, Ubi, and Sonos solution.
I especially like this chart.
I’ll give them an A+ for hitting the current gen 1 sore points.
The ST hub will soon meet those while still being an open platform. I am not worried.
Looked good until they revealed it is yet another unnecessary home audio solution first, downplayed automation second. I don’t want to have to buy a bunch of speakers to automate my lights. The kickstarter forces you to buy speakers… blah.
Thanks for the reference! It is exciting to see new product ideas enter the space!
I don’t take the majority of electronics / gadget Kickstarters and IndieGoGos seriously anymore, though – there are just too many Projects that fall far behind their scheduled delivery dates, make up arbitrary discounts from “retail” as rewards, when retail pricing is very difficult to set until the product manufacturing cost is finalized and the market analyzed, poor quality and dropped features, etc…
But on a more positive note, I wonder if there are analytics that give a breakdown of Projects / Campaigns by category. My guess that the following are very popular categories – and many of the products in these categories are very similar and will be entering a very challenging crowded marketplace with well-funded competitors with huge headstarts. There’s far less innovation than the glossy videos and optimistic comments imply!
The app itself looks much better than Smartthings over complicated app. But that does not mean it provides the same options. Lets hope in a year they start releasing the products. Though I am not to interested in yet another Music system.
Hi everyone!
Thanks for even mentioning us. We are trying hard to develop a complete solution - one that does all the home automation functionality of Smartthings (need your help) and provides complete home security with live monitoring…the speakers actually started as a simple alert component for siren/chime function. It during the development process that we realized that most people don’t want to have to “use” their alarms for protection. We thought we need to design a system that people actually do want to use…daily. So with a little tweaking and acoustic engineering we have been able to create awesome speakers that serve several functions.
Our system is open and we are inviting all or you to play around with it and help improve it!!
Hive
If the speakers could also be a sort of intercom system. In bigger houses that would be a very nice feature.
