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Ask HN: Ideas We'd Like to Fund No 15,how implement it otheshelf product?
hello all
im looking again in the great Y Combinator ideas list and noticed this section 16 that talking about of the shelf security like companies like ADT are doing , i dont understand who can such product be "of the shelf product" what i missing here ?
- tocomment 16y agolink?
- byoung2 16y agohttp://www.ycombinator.com/ideas.html http://www.ycombinator.com/ideas.html
- lsc 16y agoI guess you could ship a box full of motion detectors and stuff, (I imagine the parts are pretty cheap) and have consumers do the install, or alternately, set up a network of "certified installers" who will go do it for a hundred and fifty bucks. the easy part is setting up a callcenter to handle the alarms going off. You probably also need to coordinate with local police departments so they know what is going on when they get a call from you. (alternately, you could contract with local private security firms.)
- byoung2 16y agoLook at the prices here: http://www.adt.com/for_your_home/products_services/security_systems http://www.adt.com/for_your_home/products_services/security_... An ADT (or similar) security system is going to cost you $300-500 to install, and $40/month. Since most households who can afford such security systems likely already have broadband, always-on internet, and the members likely have smartphones with data, it is possible to offer a cheaper alternative that builds on services they are already paying for. Any hardware for the system could also be built using standard "off-the-shelf" components. Off the top of my head, I can imagine instead of hardwiring door/window sensors, motion detectors, cameras, and microphones you could connect them all via wi-fi. And instead of having a 24 hour monitoring center, you could have a cloud-based app that routes alerts directly to the owner's smartphone. This way, the $500 of equipment become $100, and the $40 monthly monitoring fee becomes $10.
- tocomment 16y agoThis is intriguing but how would you handle a power outage, or an Internet outage, or WiFI just randomly flaking out? How does the ADT system work? Some kind of dedicated line?
- byoung2 16y agoObviously I haven't figured out all the kinks, since I only gave it 5 minutes thought, but you're right, whoever does this will have to plan for all of those occurrences. My parents have an ADT system, and it just uses the regular phone line to dial in to the monitoring center. The rub was that my parents didn't have a regular phone line, they had Time Warner Digital Phone service. So everytime there was a hiccup in the digital connection, the alarm assumed someone had cut the hardline, and it dialed in when service came back up. That resulted in a phone call to confirm everything was all right. They ended up switching back to regular phone service just for the alarm. I think for the younger generation, alarms with phone line connections won't work anyway. Over half of my friends/coworkers don't have a landline phone. But they all have smartphones and broadband. Companies will have to find a way to have a reliable system that works with broadband.