As your automation expands, the actual cost of the hub becomes a fraction of the total project cost. At least in this case you should only need to replace the hub. I’m more worried about the time cost of replacing the old hub with the new one when it launches. @Ben, I hope SmartThings will attempt to make that migration process as painless as possible?
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Totally agree! SmartThings should learn from Quirky here. They partnered with major retailers and practically gave away Wink hubs for free (albeit for a limited time). This strategy will definitely pay off long term because very few people can resist a “free” offer. Even now, the Wink hub is half the price of the ST hub, although it’s probably at least twice as expensive to build. For the cloud-based services the primary goal should be to build up a user base and get developers on board, not to make money selling hubs.
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Migration is a very good point to bring up. There’s two aspects to it of course:
Hardware: I would think that it wouldn’t be possible to simply tell a z-wave product to report to Hub x instead of Hub y. This seems like a pretty big potential security risk to do this… I have to think that we’re talking about having to exclude/include every device individually… which will be a royal pain in the butt. But I’d be a little surprised if it’s possible to do it otherwise.
Software: On this side I think it would be at least a little easier to move existing configuration from one hub to the next. Though I suppose this depends a great deal on how Apps indicate which device they are using. Is there some built in code on the devices themselves that ST reads? If so, one I add my devices to my new hub they should be able to see that same code and just work. If not… if it’s the Device Network ID, for example… then it’ll be much more problematic.
I can see this being a potentially HUGE project for individuals who have a lot of devices and a lot of custom setup.
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Will the V1 hub be compatible at all with V2 hub? Maybe as a range extender or something like it.
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I really appreciate the notice and openness, particularly about the pieces you aren’t certain about and the various thoughts/ideas at play, which definitely helps me with my plans and decisions. One missing point - would it be safe to assume that the V1 Hub will continue to work, as is, for at least 2 years?
Yes. The v2 hub will continue to work and get upgrades of firmware. It will work just like v2 except won’t have BLE and won’t be able to run commands locally.
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FTFY: “The v1 will continue to work…”
Good news, thanks!
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Should both hubs run in parallel (with “things” only paired to one hub)? If I have devices that can’t at that time be unpaired from the V1 hub (HUE), can I just have 2 hubs running until such time I can migrate everything over? TIA
Will there be an ability to transfer the Z-Wave and Zigbee networks from one hub to the other without having to unpair every device?
I sure hope so! I have over 100 devices now.
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Will it dispense jelly beans? (jk) 
Or energy drinks undiluted (needed for developers)
I would assume those are must haves on the initial release. For the others, I could deal with having to exclude and re-include all my devices since I expect there are hardware challenges there. Inconsistent migration of devices might lead to more pain than one by one manual migration. What sounds more scary and more challenging to organize is setting up all my device types and smartapps just as I have them on hub v1. If not possible to backup and restore, I would want to be able to reference the old config as I build the new config. So an easy way to build onto the second hub while maintaining the old, without going through Location hell.
You have a very good point. What will be tolerated by users in as far as migration. Wife acceptance, or security, or perhaps safety critical items?
I’m sure the uber-smart ST folks will provide a migration road map. @Ben will make sure of that. In fact I don’t doubt they are very transparent during implementation.
We’re in good hands.
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Will the new hub be wall mountable or contain it’s own wireless connection?
Anything is wall mountable with enough duct tape! 
On a serious note, I’ve found 3M command stripes to be indispensable for things like this. I’ve “wall mounted” many things that were not really designed to be wall mounted. If you look under my desk at home there are multiple power strips, USB hubs, and many, many cables that are mounted to the inside of my desk with command strips.
Most of my Things that aren’t screwed in are mounted via command strips: Alarm, Open/Close sensors, Motion sensors. My son has an Intermatic remote for the Things in his room, but he doesn’t have a bedside table, so I make a little shelf for him and that’s mounted with strips too.
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But according to support, the antenna in hub v1 was not designed to function vertically.
Ohhh… that I did not know. I guess that kinda destroys my attempt at humor, doesn’t it.
You could always mount it to some kind of “L” bracket, and then mount the bracket to the wall. (c;
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With the new hub v2, can it be designed such that it can work without internet access or dependancy on having cloud connection. Example of such scenarios would be vacation homes, travel and most importantly security.
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Is there any reason why there doesn’t seem to be integration with IP Cameras yet? Seen some workarounds by the community but nothing official from ST yet. So if there are hardware limitations eg need a faster processor speed, ram etc pls do take into consideration. This is such a huge need for home automation and security.
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Is the pricing gonna be retained at USD$99?
thks
Not without a 3rd party adhesive or something.
Unlikely. Will still have ethernet as a requirement. I look at this as a positive (but I pretty much get to determine where my internet router is. I know some people have it in the basement or whatever) because it is one fewer device polluting the already very noicsy 2.4 to 5GHz bands.