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Ask HN: Why haven't open, local smart home ecosystems taken off?
In the wake of the Nest fiasco, I have to wonder, why do people still put up with this? These devices aren't that complicated; it's not like only the tech giants can afford to build them, and I'm pretty sure open protocols already exist. Is it just not profitable enough without data collection and/or lock-in? Is there a market opportunity here?
- ziddoap 8y agoI am 100% unqualified to provide anything factual, but I have some thoughts. I think it's possible that part of the reasoning is along the lines of: - People who want a full smarthome system, and aren't very technical, generally don't know or care about the implications of said system, and so they will just buy whatever is cheap/convenient/well-marketed and aren't going to care if its open or closed. - People who want a full smarthome system, and are pretty techincal might take the opportunity to make outfitting their house as a smarthome a personal pet project.
- _bxg1 8y agoPersonally I refuse to install corporate surveillance all over my house, but I also don't care enough to mess with custom Linux distros and arduinos and network configuration just to create a (probably really ugly) thermostat that I could control from my phone. But I would buy something like Nest off the shelf if it were privacy-friendly, and open enough that I could write some custom scripts to do neat things with it. Maybe I represent a niche market.
- ziddoap 8y agoI'm 100% with you. I was just putting out a pet theory - the market may appear to be really niche to potential entrepreneurs.
- edent 8y agoBecause no one manufacturer does everything. In my home, I have... Nest alarm, Lifx bulbs, Onkyo speakers, WeMo plugs, Meross adapters, Alexa voice controls, Toshiba TVs, and a bunch of no-name Chinese kit. And none of those manufacturers talk to the same standard. So I end up using IFTT and I've cobbled together controls out of various open and closed source code to make them work together.