Samsung Reveals Entire 2016 Smart TV Line-Up will be IoT Ready

Ummm, not really, but in any event no one’s being serious at this point…

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@JH1, it’s New Year’s eve! Happy New Year everyone…

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In multiple places it has been mentioned that the extender stick is free.

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I think it’s a wasted opportunity, and probably a step in the wrong direction – both in terms of development cycles as well as hardware. I messed around with an enBlink USB stick at some point and it was actually pretty bad, in spite of the software / interface being pretty slick – because it was designed for a large, high-resolution screen.

People love “consumer grade” pretty-looking hardware that you can hide somewhere, and that’s a terrible idea. I am happy for my nasty looking Ubiquiti hardware, which is not necessarily pleasant but guarantees 100% strong WiFi coverage through my house. Similarly, I will GLADLY pay twice what I paid for the ST hub for a device the size of a shoebox with 20 antennas sticking out, if it will guarantee me coverage through the house and no issues with message delivery.

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Wasted opportunity for who? Samsung can claim that their TV are HA ready, and ST can claim that they reached every corner of the world. It sounds like a dream come true for both. Who cares if it’s functional or not, Samsung refrigerators can serve you calendar reminders, just like the dogs can bark when you open a door if you have a ST hub. Trust me, looks good on the paper for both, what else can you ask in a happy marriage?

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I still contend that SmartThings needs 2 million hubs sold and/or activated smart TVs by the end of 2017 or the product will be killed :gun:. The entire business model relies on massive scaling to be successful.

Samsung sells millions and millions of high priced electronics and appliances… Not a few hundred thousand.

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True.

It’s a good strategy to really tap into and take ownership of a large chunk of the market. If it’s there, and it works, households might take advantage of it.

For me, I wanted the HA stuff regardless of what is or is not in my TV. But the integration may put the capability front and center - i.e. available - for those that would have not otherwise started dipping their toes into HA until much later into the HA market’s maturity. And with that right there, they may starting using earlier.

What will be interesting for me would be video and audio integration - ie notifications about HA on screen, video events pop ups on screen -i.e. when some one rings the doorbell… etc.

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How many app downloads does ST have on iOS? I’m too lazy to fire up my iPad and look.

I know the Android app has 50k, after all this time, and that’s assuming that these are unique installs. There’s no way Samsung gets millions of users by just introducing the product on a TV set. Maybe they’ll sell millions of TVs that’s for sure, but unless everything is completely flawless and they have a serious marketing push, I just don’t see that happening.

You need more than a CES booth and a shelf at Best Buy to push serious adoption.

Based on various analysis, I currently assume SmartThings has sold about 200,000 Hubs (probably fewer than that in active operation).

Definitely far too small revenue to sustain the business as its own unit, but, as @JDRoberts said, there are benefits to Samsung that may justify the low revenue and net loss.

It’s a matter of corporate focus, long term vs short term vision, etc., executive turnover, culture, etc., that will determine if profitability is required and when… But I would not be surprised if some Samsung executives are impatient… and others are more likely to continue to support their decision to purchase SmartThings as a company.

That functionality has been reported already. And earlier in this thread, Tyler mentioned that you’ll be able to add the TV as a device to an existing system.

There’s such a massive gap between the marketed user experience (on manufacturers’ websites and in the press) and the actual user experience (in my home) of most (all?) DIY home automation products. Unless reliability and user experience improve dramatically, I don’t see how Samsung is going to convert SmartTV buyers into paying ST subscribers

And for the record, I really hope they succeed here. I keep hoping for the dream they’re selling on the front page.

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Well, I’d say if they don’t care, they’re setting themselves up for a huge problem. One has to ask himself what percentage of SmartThings kits are being returned due to customer dissatisfaction? It’s one thing to handle RMA’s for a relatively small number of $99 gadgets. It’s a different story to handle thousands of RMA’s of expensive TV’s. Their losses can be quite substantial.

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I have SmartThings because I needed to replace a door lock and it had z-wave in it.;. Then I wanted to switch out a few bulbs for LED and needed new dimmers… It is a slippery slope. I bet a lot of other people will buy a TV and then start trying out ST bit by bit. Seems like a good way to get more people into the IoT area and ST specifically.

Granted there needs to be a bit more maturity in the ecosystem to be truly successful.

Transferring devices to new hubs will probably become much more important - that is, if they want to sell someone a new TV in a few years… :smile:

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This isn’t TV related but goes to @NorCalLights point. I bought a Samsung Gear S2 watch with the understanding that it was compatible with SmartThings. This isn’t the only reason but it is what pushed me to purchase it when I did. I really like the watch and would have most likely bought it anyway. All of their advertisements mention the integration and has pictures of it. That software is still vaporware with no scheduled release date.[quote=“geko, post:72, topic:33713”]
t’s one thing to handle RMA’s for a relatively small number of $99 gadgets. It’s a different story to handle thousands of RMA’s of expensive TV’s. Their losses can be quite substantial.
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I bought two V2 Intro Kits which were intended for family members for Christmas and ended up returning them based on the current platform issues.

I think there’ll only be a very small percentage of people who actually by the TV in order to get the SmartThings piece. The number of people who even use picture-in-picture is really small, but it still marketing plus.

That said, I definitely agree that they have to have a better match between expectation and delivery for their television clients. But this is why I’m still guessing (again, only a guess,) that the TV version is going to have significantly limited functionality compared to the hub. Except for Samsung cameras, where it may offer a lot more. We’ll see.

Dunno… My guess is it could actually have more functionality, since the processor, memory, etc, for a “smart TV” can be higher powered.

If the TVs are a “Trojan Horse” for consumers to be drawn into the SmartThings product line, then it has to cross a minimum “wow factor” of functionality.

Any predictions on what other “hubless” entries into HA will be coming from ST?

A phone would be a terrible place to add the hardware (since it comes and goes).

Are they looking to add the hub to other Samsung appliances (kitchen and laundry)?

I’m waiting for the all-in-one device to come along… Router, voice-controlled box (a la Echo), HA hub, and streaming media box.

The Google OnHub was a start for that. I really thought they were going to push it a little deeper with the functionality.

I partially depends on what you define as “hubless”.

Google Nest for example, is a hubless system and may continue to do so. In theory, any Nest device that has both IP and Thread will be able to act as a bridge to the Nest Cloud as well as handle in-home “device-to-device” communication (not just mesh routing). So Nest currently aims to be a truly hubless system.

But what about “local processing”? Well… suddenly we need a device with more processing power than, say, what is built into a Nest Thermostat. Processors and memory are getting cheaper and cheaper and smaller, of course; so it would not be out of the picture for any device except trivial ones, to manage some portion of local processing.

SmartThings will always be “cloud-centric”, though they, of course, are trying to offer more and more local-processing. So as long as the marginal cost of adding the necessary hardware becomes low enough, then any Samsung device – or even third-party hardware (routers, set-top boxes, alarm panels…) might be able to license and be a “hub”. ST’s CEO has casually mentioned that SmartThings may literally exit the “hardware business” someday.

There’s not a huge rush to this evolution – except – well, I think Nest may be on the right track at the moment. Without a hub, your Nest Thermostat and Nest Protect Smoke Alarms automagically integrate.

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I was just going by post 52 from Tyler… He stated this would be first of many hubless entries into ST.

If we look at how the Works with Nest program operates, going Hubless would mean taking away custom integration. It would likely just be all app-driven for adding approved devices and automations with no IDE.

ST will have to really up their game to create the integrations if they take away user created content.

I think limiting the ecosystem to only approved devices was the biggest downfall of the Staples Connect Hub. It worked phenomenally well out of the box, but had a very limited number of items it worked with, but they all worked flawlessly (never once had an issue with that hub).

I realize that being Samsung-owned, that people are expecting this to be highly mainstream. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there that just aren’t interested in it because of the cost associated with replacing their existing, working devices. Why should I replace my lightswitch if the one I have works? Why should I buy a new garage door opener when I have a functional one already?

Pretty sure Samsung data cloud offering, SAMI, which already has a SmartThings piece, will open up a number of hubless offerings.

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