I recently saw that only early backers get no monthly subscription… what exactly does smartthings do for me for that monthly subscription? Can I waive it and just program my devices by hand? Surely I’ve already paid for it and am willing to pay the price of the hardware. Otherwise it will be like Lowe’s Iris all over again. Any thoughts?
I’m not sure what your question is. Would you like to be able to pay a monthly fee?
No I would not, I prefer to pay upfront for the value of the goods and have no recurring fees. I mistakenly thought this device would not cost anything monthly and was holding off on purchasing the Vera3/Veralight system.
I’m not an early adopter… had I seen or known about the Kickstarter campaign, I probably would have been.
Based on the quality of the product, and the power of the scripting language I would gladly pay (much) more than the Kickstarter funding pledges.
I just have a fundamental problem with recurring costs… especially if they don’t add any real benefits.
Which is why I also would like to know, after one has a device like this, what do I really need from smartthings as a company anymore? And Why?
I think you’re confused. There are no monthly fees. For anyone. Ever.
For Kickstarter members, yes… but not for me… saw it here:
That is true, originally there was going to be a small monthly fee for non-kickstart/pre-orders. However, they have since changed that, and there will be no monthly fee for anyone, ever.
Quote from Alex (Smartthings CEO) from the reddit question and answer session: "We’ve made the decision to not charge any monthly fees for all users (both Kickstarter backers and going forwards). From the very beginning charging a monthly fee felt like it would be an inhibitor to the spirit of the open platform. With support from some of the best investors in the world, we’ve been able to put the pieces in place to make the use of the platform free for all. "
Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1a84o8/i_am_alex_hawkinson_ceo_of_smartthings_an_open/
Reserved mine, and then recently received it.
I am pretty happy with it so far… unlike the disappointing Lowe’s Iris.
Had some trouble with my old thermostat… had to un-pair it first, so had to power up my old controller. (It’s a real problem if you don’t have your old controller anymore!!!)
Have written my own app already too… 
Kinda fun tinkering around with this stuff isn’t it? I think what of the things that makes it cool for me is being able to write some simple code and then see it do things in the physical world. My program isn’t confined to the computer anymore, it actually changes things in my environment.
For sure!
I wrote a system that could do most of this a long long time ago… Was a security/building management system. Based it on Linux/Windows for all the services (audio, video capture, fingerprint, OCR, motion, I/O controllers, multiplexors) and Windows clients (written in delphi).
The system could also be scripted (interpreted) as well… nice little impressive distributed system that could handle quite a lot of data.
That was around 1998. So no internet, cheap SMSes etc, then… had to use tape storage for back-up. (argh!)
These days I’ve graduated to designing and implementing compilers, etc, so I’m pretty capable of doing the scripting.
I love it! You can imagine how the Iris system of Lowe’s frustrated me… 
@lailoaken you can actually use the SmartThings hub to un-pair any Z-Wave device that was previously paired to another system.
From the iOS app:
Menu>Settings>[Your Location]>[Your Hub]>Zwave Utilities>General Device Exclusion.
You can also do it from the web portal at graph.api.smartthings.com/hubs under Z-Wave Utilities.
I saw that option/tool, but as far as I was aware you could only un-pair a device that was paired to you.
So because it was not paired to my hub originally I did not even try.
As far as I was aware this is a security measure to stop people from being able to un-couple your security devices from your system.
That would have made sense, but I could be wrong. Also it might differ from slave device to slave device too…
Next time I will try this…
Page 11 on:
Was not overly clear… and I thought I had had problems previously after retuning Lowe’s Iris-paired thermostat for a new one because I could not seem to un-pair it… but I could have just been an idiot.
I have been known to be dumb… my wife can attest.
So can the title be Pretty excited, and then more excited now?
I wish I could change it… yep, that disappointment was cleared up a few posts into the original thread.
I’ll stop posting here now to stop spamming that subject into people’s inboxes.
I wouldn’t rule out the slight, but VERY REAL, possibility that SmartThings may eventually charge subscription fees.
They are too young of a business to rule out any possibly necessary revenue stream. The “Cloud” costs money to run and maintain.
These fees may be for some sort of “premium” features, or even in the form of advertising, in order to avoid breaking the promise of no monthly fees “ever”.
I have used very many online services and smartphone apps that started with zero fees and no hint that fees would ever be charged … and so very many of them changed to a subscription model; or failed as businesses.
SmartThings is not a charity. They are in this for profit. Hopefully they are not in this for a quick sale to the highest bidder. I spent a year with Astrid task manager from Beta through very stable, and they sold out to Yahoo who pulled the plug in only 90 days. Now Yahoo has purchased Tumblr.
SmartThings is funded by venture capital funds that are obligated to make a return for their investors; even if that means selling the company only for it to be shut down. It happens every day.
Cross fingers, everyone; but beware.
I have reason to believe that they are looking very closely at some type of subscription based service for premium features. I for one don’t have an issue with it. Actually, I support it. I don’t see how else they will continue to support a cloud based service off just hardware sales, unless they get into the data mining business. If a reasonable monthly fee means there will no longer be an inconsistent user experience due to them not being able to support the system with enough backend, then I am all for it.
Agreed Cory. Though I wonder if KS backers will have to pay that?
But will there be a reseller program for CE’s / Integrators?
It would be interesting if there was one. I’d love using my house as a demo platform to sell/install kits as a side business. I think that’s a little off subject though.
I actually consider it to be on-topic;
I want my Customers to be excited, and not disappointed