Frustrations Building ST is So up and Down

Although you may not be referring to the level of detail as I am I thinking, it seems to be a reality that published “Product Roadmaps” from Consumer Product companies are very rare. Apple (being a very particular example, though I wouldn’t say they are unique…) is always very secretive until official announcement dates.

This forum, and the Community Office Hours, helps give us a little more insight than the non-observing public, but a fully published and updated “SmartThings / Samsung Roadmap” is not likely. There are valid strategic reasons for this: (a) Staying ahead of the competition, (b) Maximize flexibility to respond and/or pivot according to market and business conditions, and (c) Avoid publishing promises that might not be kept due to any number of forces (time constraints, business changes, technical issues, …).

Business-to-Business (B2B) companies, though, tend to be a little more open to sharing their plans, particularly with bigger customers and partners, but often under non-disclosure agreements. Actually, it’s quite likely there are a significant number of SmartThings’s “partnerships” in progress, and each of these is getting more future and “internal” information than we will ever get.

Perhaps there could be some formal (?) way for smaller SmartThings developers/integrators to organize so that we could have a bit more clout and justify a bit more insider knowledge. Doubt this would make a big difference though. SmartThings is a for-profit business, not an open consortium or other sort of organization. Nurturing and retaining their developer community through engagement here is only a very small part of their business model.

If this were my company, my focus would be on mass market consumers (not long tail) and high-value efficient partnerships (retail and integration). I’m pretty sure this is the approach ST is taking.

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