How does ST make its money?

[tgauchat (ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)]

Yup… I’ve given the same answer @viguera hints at … and a few variations, in many threads.

Run some searches and enjoy the reading and join the conversation…

What if Smartthings dissapears or is hacked

Good comment; but I’ve quoted the key part of your post. SmartThings (a subsidiary of Samsung Inc.) exists to make money. It is not a charity, it is not an Open Source company. The profit margin from hardware sales (especially just the hub) is pretty small. On the other hand, the premium added to the price of an appliance (such as a Samsung Refrigerator) gained by just adding a low resolution slow tablet and WiFi (sub-$100 cost of materials) is quite high. But neither of those compares to the profit they hope to make by selling integration (device handlers and apps), partnerships (integration with home security and home insurance companies, fitness, … who knows?), and aggregation of our data for marketing purposes (since marketing / advertising is obviously where all the money in the wo…