Services That Are Out Of Your Control…..
Many moons ago I took a brief look at SmartThings and obviously registered a Hub with them, occasionally I still get emails extolling the virtues of their system, but this morning I woke up to this:
So basically you lose all control of your system when the back end of the system goes down. My first thought being, what happens when Samsung bores of this product? do they just turn off the servers and you are left with a handful of devices that are only good for landfill? At this point, I can safely say I think I made the right choice with installing Loxone in my own house.
Thats not to say its perfect, good… yes, great… yes, but not 100% perfect, but unless you turn off the mini-server, everything is still going to work, control will be maintained inside your home or office.
At times, I to a little envy of other manufacturers kit with things like the UI and easy integration with devices such as Alexa and Sonos, but once again most of these features require services outside of your own network, that you have no control over, yes I’d love greater integration with Sonos from the Loxone app (it isn’t going to happen, Loxone have their music server, which from the demo’s I have seen is a cool piece of kit), but am happy with to live with more basic controls so that I don’t have to rely on external sources.
So another plus point for the system we all know and love!
It’s an interesting point you’ve made, but maybe not entirely accurate… I’m a smartthings owner and I’m looking at Loxone and other ‘more sophisticated’ systems.
Samsung server maintenance happens once in a blue moon, and when it does, you still have access to the main elements in your home; devices execute their commands either via the cloud, or locally. The vital elements usually execute locally, meaning as long as you have wifi at home, it’s all good. Plus, you’d want Samsung to update their services to make them better, right? I’m not 100% familiar with Loxone, but I imagine it’s a little harder to maintain and keep up-to-date.
I don’t think any service is 100% perfect yet, but to question if Samsung will get bored of it isn’t quite founded – they are investing heavily in ST and it’s only going to improve over time as it becomes more common and people get on board more! The same can be said for the majority of smart home tech.
Cheers