4 ms·

Nest thermostat doesn't have a subscription fee ;) Besides, Arlo's freemium so I don't really get your argument (you get 7 days of recording free, up to 5 came

Nest thermostat doesn't have a subscription fee ;) Besides, Arlo's freemium so I don't really get your argument (you get 7 days of recording free, up to 5 cameras; $$ if you want more of either). I like the idea of Dropcam, but $200/camera PLUS a monthly fee I can't swallow. It's an expensive razor with expensive blades. But, I'm just some random schmo and not a millionaire who sold his company to Google, so feel free to disagree!

dguaraglia 11y ago
The way to think about it is selling devices (money is made from bulk selling) vs. selling subscriptions (RMM.) If you are going to run a business with a cloud component, you need to either embed the cost of running that cloud in the price of the device or charge for the service. The Nest thermostat (pre-acquisition) fit the first model, Dropcam (pre-acquisition) fit the second. The camera was expensive because that's what it cost to make a camera with those specs. For comparison, a GoPro that ran basically on the same hardware - slightly different lenses, a sturdier case - was priced at around $400. My guess is Arlo is burning investor money for projected growth, which is a perfectly valid trade-off (for a while.) Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, it was an "expensive-razor-with-expensive-blades" situation, but over time we estimated the razor would get cheaper and the blades (for the same price) would cook your meals and wash the dishes. For the record, I'm far from a millionaire entrepreneur. I'm just lucky enough to have worked at a great company that had a solid product and got sold for a good amount of money. Can't complain about the outcome, but you won't see me buying a mansion in LA any time soon ;)
dgacmu 11y ago
It's only a monthly fee if you want recording. I have two dropcams, neither of which has a subscription attached, that I've been using for over two years now. I think I activated recording for one month of the entire period, when I wanted to see what was eating my garden, but the rest of the time, one acts as our "let's make sure the house didn't burn down on vacation" cam, and the other is a glorified baby cam, both of which we just check on-demand. I recognize that I've bought a product that might stop working at Dropcam/Nest/Google's whim, but Google, at least, I trust to give reasonable notice for sunsetting. I used the dropcam to replace a homebrewed IP cam setup + dyndns + yadda yadda + recording to my synology. It turns out that free wasn't very free -- it took too much of my time on an ongoing basis. Having the dropcam just work was worth the price (and the risk of it becoming a paperweight after three or four years -- which it hasn't yet!)

dguaraglia 11y ago

The way to think about it is selling devices (money is made from bulk selling) vs. selling subscriptions (RMM.) If you are going to run a business with a cloud component, you need to either embed the cost of running that cloud in the price of the device or charge for the service. The Nest thermostat (pre-acquisition) fit the first model, Dropcam (pre-acquisition) fit the second. The camera was expensive because that's what it cost to make a camera with those specs. For comparison, a GoPro that ran basically on the same hardware - slightly different lenses, a sturdier case - was priced at around $400. My guess is Arlo is burning investor money for projected growth, which is a perfectly valid trade-off (for a while.) Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, it was an "expensive-razor-with-expensive-blades" situation, but over time we estimated the razor would get cheaper and the blades (for the same price) would cook your meals and wash the dishes. For the record, I'm far from a millionaire entrepreneur. I'm just lucky enough to have worked at a great company that had a solid product and got sold for a good amount of money. Can't complain about the outcome, but you won't see me buying a mansion in LA any time soon ;)

dgacmu 11y ago

It's only a monthly fee if you want recording. I have two dropcams, neither of which has a subscription attached, that I've been using for over two years now. I think I activated recording for one month of the entire period, when I wanted to see what was eating my garden, but the rest of the time, one acts as our "let's make sure the house didn't burn down on vacation" cam, and the other is a glorified baby cam, both of which we just check on-demand. I recognize that I've bought a product that might stop working at Dropcam/Nest/Google's whim, but Google, at least, I trust to give reasonable notice for sunsetting. I used the dropcam to replace a homebrewed IP cam setup + dyndns + yadda yadda + recording to my synology. It turns out that free wasn't very free -- it took too much of my time on an ongoing basis. Having the dropcam just work was worth the price (and the risk of it becoming a paperweight after three or four years -- which it hasn't yet!)