I don’t know if this has been discussed or not, but I have two thoughts:
1- Although the ST main service is free, I think the backers from Kikstarters should not pay monthly fees for the premium service… The only thing made me take the risk and support Kickstarter campaign is the fact that founders promises to have free service for ever… Again, I understand that the main service is free BUT giving a free premium serves what diffracts bakers from Kickstarter campaign from others…
2- I’m not sure but I don’t see any table that compare the two Hubs (v1.0 and v2.0) side by side and show us the difference between the two in a short way… And that should answer some questions such as (is the v2.0 support Zwave plus?)
V2 is z-wave plus (as were later generation v1 hubs, if I recall correctly. I’m sure you can find the threads discussing it if you’re interested. I’ve already given my V1 away, so I can’t check).
I don’t really think that being a Kickstarter backer really should give you free upgrades and features for life. If you like something and want to support it, spend the money. Otherwise, giving a bit of money out front 3 years ago (I can’t speak for how much, I have no idea where you think the threshold would be) isn’t exactly the same thing as continuing support. I’m sure they appreciate every Kickstarter backer, but it is still a business and they are certainly allowed to grow past their original business plan - and we should be happy that they are growing past it. The world is a different place than it was even a few years ago. It admittedly gets a little tricky when they’ve mentioned it on their Kickstarter page, but no matter what, there are no fees for the basic services provided (including all those at original launch) and it’s still true that there aren’t fees for any users of original hubs. This has some good information as well Subscription Questions - #4 by ryanf
What are the monthly fees mentioned?
Outside of Kickstarter backers, we expect the SmartThings service to
cost between $4.99 and $9.99 / month. However, as a special benefit to
the initial Super Early Bird, Early Bird, Early Adopter Special,
Pre-Order, Developer & Maker, and Enthusiast backers (any pledge
level that includes Hub), you will pay zero monthly fees, forever.
Last updated:
Sat, Sep 15 2012 11:27 PM MST
Will Kickstarter backers ever pay monthly fees on the hubs they recieve thru this campaign?
No.
Battery backup for the hub in the event of short term loss of power.
Z-wave Plus
BT hardware built in (but not yet active)
USB ports for possible later expansion
The ability to run some apps locally vs. in the cloud, meaning they should still run even if communication with the internet is lost.
There’s probably a few things I’m missing here, but that’s the short list. Honestly, much of it is about future potential. The real biggie for me was being able to run some apps locally and therefore more reliably… but right now the ONLY app that will run locally is Smart Lighting, and then only if all the device types for the automation in question are “default” types supported by SmartThings.
Just FYI - another restriction - default, non-cloud-integrated device types.
So, for example, LIFX is a default, supported device type which works with Smart Lighting but, because the device integration is currently via the LIFX cloud service and not via the LAN protocol, it must run in the SmartThings cloud and therefore will cause Smart Lighting to also run in the cloud, not locally.
And apparently the official Hue integration now connects locally, but code utilizing that connection still doesn’t run locally. Which is a little confusing but is what it is.