Or Lowe’s is going to “exit” the business as the article states. So I guess they could technically sell it off. Sucks because they were some of my favorite sensors and I have a location near by. But I’m guessing margins on devices are not good and most of their recurring revenue was from monthly plans. Without enough users those monthly plans aren’t enough to keep the boat afloat.
“Lowe’s plans to end its Mexico retail operations and is exploring strategic alternatives for the business, the company announced Tuesday. It also plans to exit Alacrity Renovation Services and Iris Smart Home.”
New CEO and Home Depot is eating their lunch right now.
“However, when set against the wider context of the market and against rival Home Depot, Lowe’s growth is pretty weak.”
They just spent a ton of money to distribute the craftsman brand name after Black & Decker bought it from Sears, and he wants stuff that’s simple to sell.
Looks like some of the new devices are already on clearance at my store. Discount Seems a little steep for Black Friday pricing. But the timing lines up. Who knows. Ordered one of each to try out.
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
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And PEQ and Halo … and - don’t make me guess who’s next. … well, Wink, of course. beep, beep, beep, boooooooooooop.
This is becoming a highly competitive industry. Niche players can survive if their missions are focused and they can retain a fan-base. But don’t kids yourselves that new entrants will have any significant odds of success. 90% of startups fail. And the stale old ones had better perk up significantly.
Last time I was on the platform was the upgrade from UI4 to 5 and it was a mess. Missed deadlines and bad hardware also were the reasons I switch to SmartThings.
I have no doubt Iris is going to follow a similar path. It pales in comparison to other home automation platforms, lacks innovation and is highly dependent on the Lowe’s retail channels to supply a large portion of its limited number of supported devices. It also has a small customer base. If Iris was truly profitable, I doubt Lowes would be divesting.
Personally, I believe Iris was doomed from the v2 private beta. It was so poorly run that customers were purchasing hubs in the stores while the devs and beta team were still struggling with hub and firmware updates just to get Lowe’s branded devices to connect. It was rushed to market so they could get it to consumers for Christmas. Lowe’s ability to manage and nurture the ecosystem has never improved.
Back at CES '15, Lowe’s built a mock home of the future. Their booth hyped a partnership with LG in which LG ThinQ appliances and TVs would be tightly integrated with Iris. They even demonstrated this integration with LG laundry appliances. The entire partnership turned out to be vaporware.
I think the real parallel here is Staples Home Connect. Staples searched for a buyer, Z-Wave Devices who took over supporting the platform. They finally pulled the plug this spring.
I just don’t see Iris having much of a future at this point. There are too many other, more mature platforms out there now.
“Indefinitely” meaning until there is an industry wide change in the specification requiring firmware updates to older devices.
It’s important to note that while Z wave has always made backwards compatibility a part of their specification, zigbee has not. It’s possible that there might be a change in, for example, the way encryption keys are exchanged that would make the older devices that can’t be updated cease to function on the network.
I’m not saying that will happen, but if you pick a time frame of 3 to 5 years, I wouldn’t bet against it, either.
Just sayin’…
My own strategy, as I’ve mentioned before, is to assume that every piece of home automation tech will be obsolete in three years from time of purchase. It might be that it actually stops working with the network, it might just be that there are features that I really want that are not available with the older devices. But I budget under the assumption that one way or another I will want to replace it in three years. If it lasts longer than that, that’s a bonus, but I don’t expect it.
