The competing hubs that have battery power aren’t using it to keep the hub on when all other power is off.
They’re using it to carry the hub to already installed devices like doorlocks, wired switches, and bulbs in lighting fixtures. It’s just a pain to go hysically uninstall each one, carry it to the hub, pair. Way easier to carry the hub to the devices.
There are also reasons for pairing some devices in place, since the very first routing will include the correct neighbors and you won’t have to shut the whole network down to heal.
I’m quadriparetic and wheelchair dependent. Being able to pair devices in place is a priority use case for me. (I can’t unscrew a light bulb, for example.) but there are a lot of ablebodied people who would similarly prefer to move one device rather than a bunch. Or even that just one, like a zigbee door lock.
1 Like
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
22
BINGO!
We have no idea what SmartThings’s actual target market and marketing strategy is. Samsung may just be taking a cautious approach based on possible risk to their reputation at over-selling a product that has current growing pains.
We know large tech companies release mega-flop products from time to time (oh, too many examples to make a serious list – Apple LISA and Newton, Microsoft Kin phone, …). Imagine how many products they must incubate and then decide to not even launch.
Sure … SmartThings is already out in the wild and given high profile at CES – but even significant numbers of CES announced products never hit the shelves or survive long.
My impression of Samsung, doing no market research, is that they limit their public failures – perhaps it is a South Korean cultural trait. While SmartThings had to be conservative in various ways due to funding limitations prior to the Samsung acquisition, ironically now SmartThings has to be conservative because of the Samsung acquisition.
ADD:
Samsung’s market cap is over $150 BILLION USD; their acquisition cost of $200 million for SmartThings is a small write-off, if they decide it is wiser to cut their exposure.
I think we’ve already established elsewhere that this will not work as you expect it. In the absence of include/exclude buttons, you can only include one device while the hub is unplugged. So you 'd have to make a trip back to your Internet router to start new inclusion.
Just another reason not to pair inplace, repeater data will not be used and stored. In place pairing is not a normal proceedure, thus why implement hardware and costs to support, plug the unit into a temp closer location or even an ups.
I’m all for it if the batts were chargeable. I can buy an add on phone to my cordless system for $10-15, this includes a handset, rechargeable batts and charging unit, so why not rechargeable capability?
I think we do. The guy said in no uncertain terms that they want SmartThings built in into every TV they sell, turning it into always-on, always listening device.
2 Likes
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
26
So … the target market is Advertisers?
That would not be an uncommon business plan (duh!) … the home control features are just a trojan horse, and we all know how well that “gift” worked out.
Yep and it still works very well. The good thing about the two devices required to automate my garage door is that they will work with what ever dumb garage door opener I buy in the future when my antique finally does expire.
None of the consumer home automation platforms that exist today are “great”. I have used Wink, Vera, and Century Link’s Smart Home. There are plenty of people on the forums that came over from Vera. There are plenty who got into to this because of wink. I doubt Century Link has more than a few hundred customers on their hideous platform. Aside from Vera the other two are cloud only.
I see SmartThings as having the best shot to find the thing that does make consumer home automation great. All of these systems are best suited for early adopters who are willing to take a ride. I remember having these same conversations about getting on the internet. Just getting on the internet was a complicated process that was anything but reliable. We take for granted today the progress that has been made in the last two decades. In 20 years you will be able to just plug your things in and they will all start working together.
We don’t know how it will work until it’s out, but it could work exactly like V1 hub does, which also doesn’t have include/exclude buttons. You control the Join with the plus sign in the mobile app. Then the only difference would be carrying the hub to the device and running it on battery power there. So no, I don’t have to go back to the Internet router each time, as long as I have wifi access back to the router. And even if I did, it’s easier than removing a wall switch. But we’ll just have to see what the real thing does when it arrives.
Part of smartthings’ market, if only so Samsung can eventually sell them smart appliances, will be people migrating from competing controllers. Whether it’s zigbee or zwave, no one is going to want to physically remove and then reinstall a networked doorlock or smoke alarm or wall switch as part of the migration.
I agree with you that rechargeable batteries do seem like a better choice, I wonder if it’s a price point issue.
I agree with a lot of what you said. I’ve been having very similar frustrations. If they focused on locking in the addition/setup process and making it “just work”, that would be a huge plus.
They also need to add a rule building tool right into the IDE or App.
My concern is it’s too early for V2, we haven’t got half the devices functional on V1, so what’s the push? Samsung, @Ben says no… Local processing, selling point but not a show stopper at this point? Battery functionality, again a selling point but not a show stopper, also most devices not functional in a power failure anyway? Pressure to showoff at CES?
Because you veterans are doing the man version of what my missus’is doing with her friends on a non existent pair of shoes on a saks catalog, brooding, drooling… Over something which is yet to exist. While me the slacker is working on integration of all my SmartApps to pushbullet so as not to bother the missus with crazy messages…and that damn thing is brilliant… Carry on, my chatterbox friends… (no insult intended. Luv ya guys). If @geko is there, please remind him of the 39$.
Need to be competitive vs HomeKit by CES 2016. I’m not really expecting HomeKit to be viable until summer 2016. So I’m guessing the vaporware for HomeKit ( equivalent to Samsung’s 2015 CES vaporware) appears at CES 2016. My guess is Samsung wants to be a field ready alternative at that time. That means Gear watch and at least Samsung TV and refrigerator integration, along with native Hue support and stronger scene and plug and play support. (I still think the ST dashboard is going to live on the Samsung refrigerator screen in their model home, even if it’s only a Galaxy mirror. The refrigerator screen really needs a killer app.)
None of that necessarily part of the v2 hub launch, but all of that in the field by
January 2016.
So the investment goes into v2 hub. And maybe v3 is even released for January 2016. (Not announced, released.)
Samsung isn’t afraid of quick cycles, look at their Smartwatch. They wanted to stay ahead of Apple even if it was an iterative design.
All that is pure guesswork on my part, of course. (they pushed out the delivery date on the unicorns again. )
Obviously not, they have no idea what the price range on v2 will be… Everyone should watch the ST Developer Discussions on youtube; if it were my company I’d have them deleted… Not helping sales or gaining customers.
It wouldn’t cost much to mount a cheap outdated android tablet to a frig and Jack the frig price up 4x the cost of the tablet… but it would actually be a nice option, with a Netflix or Time Warner Cable App you could even watch live TV on it… They could use the guts of some old obsolete tablets and mount right in the door (worth about $50 retail) and up the frig price $400-500…
But we’ll just have to see what the real thing does when it arrives.
(no insult intended. Luv ya guys). If 
(they pushed out the delivery date on the unicorns again.