With the main focus being on the openness of our platform there are no plans or whispers about limiting our compatibility because of this acquisition.
As the most vocal Android enthusiast in the company I’m also looking forward to the range of resources we’ll have at our disposal.
Sir, you take that back!
Go away.
(…20 characters)
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
…be more descriptive? Really?
Oh yeah! I hope ST gives Android, and it’s 85% market share, the attention we deserve. Enough with the “Android is for the poor, iPhone for the cool” bs from the past.
Honestly, while I readily admit that iOS was the front running initially, I really don’t think Android is considered a poor second anymore. Somethings might come to iOS first, but not months before Android like in the past.
Absolutely true. Smart/Connected Home is the next major hitech battleground. You’ve got to be strong to play this game. Consolidation have started with Google acquiring Nest and this is just the beginning.
On top of that, you can’t forget the awesome stuff people (like @csader) have created that is Android-only.
I agree with you 100% I wouldn’t be to quick to jump ship? SmartThings is doing an excellent job. If you’re supporting them you should continue to do so until given a valid reason other than a brand name that you may not particularly care for (not directed to you brianlees).
It really is this simple. The technology is pretty general. You can have hundreds of devices and at anytime although time consuming you can go out and invest in another hub period done deal. It’s that easy if something negative were to come of this. The technology isn’t proprietary.
Ok I’m on the lifeboat with life jacket on, but for now I’ll trust ST founders that they wouldn’t have gone into the deal with their initial vision compromised. Let’s just hope for the best.
However, in the long run I fear that things will change eventually. This quarter Samsung’s profit fell short because they are more sandwiched from both sides of high and low-end smartphone markets. Though Samsung is a big conglomerate that makes everything and kitchen sinks, smartphone business is the largest cash cow that is central to their entire corporation. They tried s/w differentiation which obviously did not work very well and I think IoT is their next bet, which makes ST acquisition a no-brainer. (Smart move I should add) But when you need the most is the differentiation to create a platform lock-in, you need to have features/products exclusive to your platform eventually. Probably why I put on my life jacket now.
OK, I have been quietly reading this thread and I have a few thoughts.
The deal is barely a day or two old and, as is the case in our 24 hour news cycle world, there is mostly speculation and few facts flying around. So, I think we all need to let this play out and see. From the “facts” that have been officially stated both in releases and by @Ben and others, it sounds like ST is truly in a different class than other Samsung acquisitions. So, I think a wait and see attitude is a good idea.
If you feel that you can’t wait or you don’t think it is going to go well, there are other options out there to switch to, such as Revolv and some other kickstarters. Yes, some people have invested a lot of time into their ST setup. But, outside of that time you have only invested $99 for the hub. Everything else you have added to the system will work on other systems. I think if the hub itself was several thousand dollars, people would have good reason to be concerned. But, at $99, you can easily move to something else like Revolv if you are nervous. And, even that is not so expensive that you have wasted a lot of money. Again, we all just need to take a step back and get some perspective.
@esung made some comments about differentiation that got me thinking. Let’s look at the land grab that the HA space has become. We are seeing consolidation and big players make their way into the space - Google, Apple, Samsung, and even Microsoft with their INSTEON “agreement” (or whatever that was). We are now entering the massive marketing and differentiation phase. Some from that group may go more proprietary. However, I think the smart ones will remain as open as possible and differentiate themselves on functionality, easy of use, and a few proprietary “Wow Factors” like maybe voice control with boxes around the house, etc.
Take a step back and look at the current HA environment. There are several competing standards, all of which are still doing well. I have a feeling that the different standards will remain, with some new ones added as well. This space is too big for there to be one or two standards. Being an IT Director, I’m surrounded by different, competing standards that are flourishing. It is normal and competition is good.
So, in the end, I’m not worried. I have a bunch of zwave switches, some zwave and zigbee motion sensors, a few other things (love my minimote)…and an ST hub. If I don’t like where ST is going, I can easily switch to another platform. Yep, I would have to redo everything. But, how is that really different than buying a new computer and redoing everything there? Yep, you have to move all your songs (switches) and photos (sensors), but they easily transfer over and you can now use them in new ways.
Yes, it is a lot of fun to speculate on this. Hell, even I have ideas what I think might happen over the longer term (mostly because Samsung has problems sitting back and letting things play out :)).
But, in the end, I know I’ll always have several options to choose from and I’m not worried…and neither should everyone else. If anything, we should all show Samsung, by doing what we do here, that the environment ST has setup is unique and worth so much that it should be left to thrive…with the occasional shot of Miracle-Gro. 
(To be honest, it is that potential shot of Miracle-Gro from Samsung that has me the most excited!)
Just remember, you guys could be Windows Phone users if you really want to feel behind the curve. I hate having an extra phone solely so I can operate my home automation. 
I understand the user-base isn’t there yet to make investing in it easy, but nonetheless, Android is in pretty good shape by comparison.
Windows phone version coming.
I wanted to comment a bit more and pull back the curtain a little more on the last couple years.
SmartThings is composed of a founding team that is used to going quickly. Really, there is a huge part of our culture across the board, that lends itself towards rapid iteration and improvement across many things at once. Some of you have noticed this, but as of late, it may have ben hard not to notice a slowdown.
Since the Kickstarter campaign closed back in September of 2012, some subset of the team has been more or less focused on raising funds. The number of people involved started small but has fluctuated between 3 and no less than 30 people engaged in partnership discussions, fund-raising, and even acquisition talks (of which Samsung was not the only one).
I cannot believe I forgot to explicitly call this out until now, but our team really hasn’t had everyone focused on making the best product, the most open platform, and cultivating the best community, for nearly 2 years. It is going to be amazing to be able to focus and move as fast as we all want, and our community deserves — finally being able to close the door on a number of features and projects we have been working on. The next 6 months to a year are going to be an remarkable thing to be a part of and very productive in terms of advancing SmartThings. Thank you for sticking with us.
Apologies, I didn’t think about the fact that I was whining Ben. I try to be a little better than that. You guys have been killing it and don’t need noise from supporters.
Thank you @brianless for your post. This is a new deal and @Ben has given many promises of a bright future. So far support has been great to work with and if I go off how I have been treated so far, then (even though I was concerned when I first heard about Samsung acquiring Smartthings) all I can do look at how I have been treated. So far I have not been ignored and things have been great.
I look forward to what new products you come up with, add officially to the list of product supported and features added to Smartthings.
I agree with those of you looking forward to SmartThings being even better. The field is becoming very crowded out there, and right now SmartThings is the only device with an open environment that allows us to not only adjust and come up with new devices but also one of the few environments that has a Active Community that helps each other with the various problems that we encounter in the HA community.
This is ultimately the reason I selected SmartThings over all the other options. In a sense, as noted above. You guys ROCK
I have some concerns (I’m not a fan of Samsung), but I’m willing to wait and see what happens next. It would be incredibly premature to jump ship right now. Plus, I have no idea where I would jump to. The thing that sold me on SmartThings was the openness and all of the developers who were making their own creative apps. I don’t know of any other platform that has that.
I hope to see something new and exciting soon!