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Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

developers.meethue.com

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Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#21

Post by Steltek »

rubidium wrote: post #15
DiabloD3 wrote: post #10

The thing is, to me, the fact that they ever decided to do this in the first place means I will never buy Philips smart home products ever. They have proven they can't be trusted with this sort of power, and that is a one way trip. You don't come back from that, you don't get back off my list.

Either A) You don't trust any large, publically traded company. B) You don't understand how large, publically traded companies work. This decision was made by someone in marketing. Phillips engineers (in this division) were ambivalent because it meant less verification and testing (yea!) but also means they have a less capable product. It got approved because someone (likely a director somewhere) put together a marke…

I don't think you've invalidated his point at all. It's not about why this happened, it's that it happened at all. Apathetic, poor decision making can be just as bad as greedy, poor decision making. Sometimes people need a reminder that corporations are not your friends and investing too much trust is a risky choice.

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#22

Post by thecatspaw »

donkeyd wrote: post #11

Second large company this week to rollback a change after public outcry, with Valve rolling back a change in CS:GO. I hope their marketing people take a lesson out of this.

if only valve would listen more often and faster. Im not demanding fixes the next day, but it would be nice to at least get some message saying "We know about this issue, we're looking into it"

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#23

Post by rrrx3 »

rubidium wrote: post #16
eveningcoffee wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not mad at this at all. I am. Because it is a way to extort money out of other ZigBee participants.

It's not extorting. It's making sure your house doesn't burn down because you bought the el cheapo bulb from knockoff brand C.

It's making sure that you're not liable for someone's house burning down because they bought the el cheapo bulb from knockoff brand C. This is standard protective legal boilerplate to protect philips in the unlikely event.

Also, want to point out that philips is not "extorting money" from other companies - they can choose to enter the "friends of" program to make the general consumer feel better, or choose not to, at their discretion.

The class of user that realizes any zigbee bulb will work with a hue hub is already technically proficient, and will more often than not be willing to take on any associated "risks."

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#24

Post by mdip »

A point brought up in the replies to their forum post warrants repeating: They claim that they were concerned about the quality of their brand being eroded by third-party bulbs that didn't reproduce the same quality experience that first-party/certified bulbs did.

They had the solution available to them from day one. Since they can clearly identify third-party bulbs, they could have simply presented a warning along the lines of "We've detected you're using bulbs that are not certified by Philips. For best results, we recommend using only certified bulbs (link to purchase here) and cannot guarantee a quality experience with the bulbs you've purchased. Click "OK" to continue."

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#25

Post by rubidium »

Steltek wrote: post #21
rubidium wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either A) You don't trust any large, publically traded company. B) You don't understand how large, publically traded companies work. This decision was made by someone in marketing. Phillips engineers (in this division) were ambivalent because it meant less verification and testing (yea!) but also means they have a less capable product. It got approved because someone (likely a director somewhere) put together a marke…

I don't think you've invalidated his point at all. It's not about why this happened, it's that it happened at all. Apathetic, poor decision making can be just as bad as greedy, poor decision making. Sometimes people need a reminder that corporations are not your friends and investing too much trust is a risky choice.

My goal wasn't to invalidate. It was to say that the grandparent must not trust any large, publicly traded company. Which is exactly your final sentence.

However, I would say that a company (big or small) that actually changes their strategic marketing decision based on a user complaints _is_ rare. And this shows that Phillips has some good mechanisms in place to respond. To me, they come out a bit ahead at the end of this.

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#26

Post by rrrx3 »

rubidium wrote: post #15
DiabloD3 wrote: post #10

The thing is, to me, the fact that they ever decided to do this in the first place means I will never buy Philips smart home products ever. They have proven they can't be trusted with this sort of power, and that is a one way trip. You don't come back from that, you don't get back off my list.

Either A) You don't trust any large, publically traded company. B) You don't understand how large, publically traded companies work. This decision was made by someone in marketing. Phillips engineers (in this division) were ambivalent because it meant less verification and testing (yea!) but also means they have a less capable product. It got approved because someone (likely a director somewhere) put together a marke…

The decision to only support Philips products came most likely from the engineering division themselves. Marketing probably had a shit-fit because losing a marketable feature is a giant regression to your general user.

People in Marketing and Product tend to be way more in-tune with customers and don't make boneheaded decisions like this. Another easy tell: the company was shocked by the reaction of users. That meant the company wasn't aware of user impressions of the decision. That also meant Product/Marketing teams weren't involved in the decision.

When the "what does it cost us to test this compatibility" calculus comes out as more expensive than "what is the cost of the backlash to our company," you realize that Engineering divisions without enough resources are driving this type of decision, 99 times out of 100.

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#27

Post by raverbashing »

rubidium wrote: post #16
eveningcoffee wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not mad at this at all. I am. Because it is a way to extort money out of other ZigBee participants.

It's not extorting. It's making sure your house doesn't burn down because you bought the el cheapo bulb from knockoff brand C.

Pray tell how does a LED Lamp can burn your house down

Oh wait it can't (if it can because your wiring is crap and the protection devices are not working you have much bigger problems)

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#28

Post by eli »

mdip wrote: post #24

A point brought up in the replies to their forum post warrants repeating: They claim that they were concerned about the quality of their brand being eroded by third-party bulbs that didn't reproduce the same quality experience that first-party/certified bulbs did. They had the solution available to them from day one. Since they can clearly identify third-party bulbs, they could have simply presented a warning along t…

Will that stop people complaining to Philips support when it doesn't work well?

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#29

Post by dalbin »

mdip wrote: post #24

A point brought up in the replies to their forum post warrants repeating: They claim that they were concerned about the quality of their brand being eroded by third-party bulbs that didn't reproduce the same quality experience that first-party/certified bulbs did. They had the solution available to them from day one. Since they can clearly identify third-party bulbs, they could have simply presented a warning along t…

That's exactly the solution used by Apple, so you can still use DIY HomeKit accessory.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Networ...

Re: Philips reverses decision to close the Hue Platform

#30

Post by TeMPOraL »

raverbashing wrote: post #27
rubidium wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not extorting. It's making sure your house doesn't burn down because you bought the el cheapo bulb from knockoff brand C.

Pray tell how does a LED Lamp can burn your house down Oh wait it can't (if it can because your wiring is crap and the protection devices are not working you have much bigger problems)

A LED bulb converts your 230V AC (or 110V in the US) power source into 12V DC (in case of Hue itself). This converter part can, if poorly made, create a fire hazard. And a bulb is usually mounted inside a lamp, many of which are flammable and have the shape that will accumulate heat inside instead of dissipating it.
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