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Verizon Discontinues Home Automation Service After 2 Years
An anonymous reader writes "Verizon has discontinued its Home Monitoring and Control solution, a $10/month service for do-it-yourselfers that enables remote monitoring and control of security, lighting, thermostats and more. The author notes Verizon 'was attempting to become the first successful provider of a DIY security/automation system that had a monthly fee separate from a professionally monitored security system. ... Providers could (and do) charge premiums of $10 or more for automation and self-monitored security as an attachment to professional monitoring, but not as a standalone service.'"
If you're paying a third party for a service, it's not DIY.
I've had DIY home security for almost 20 years now. There's no need to pay for monitoring. When something is worth alerting me about, the system sends me a text ( before that, it paged me).
My dog and .40 are the best DIY home security.
"It's just as well," the Verizon spokesperson said, "It wasn't close to turning a profit, and that didn't even count the extra costs feeding the home info from all sensors to the NSA, whom we aren't even legally allowed to charge."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
If you're paying Verizon to do it, how is it DIY?
- There just aren't a lot of devices linked yet within a home, especially since Verizon was targeting a novice and not someone who's played with X10 or can configure their own router.
- Verizon support is terrible for most products, and this would likely have been even worse.
- Who really needs to control their lighting and thermostats more than they already do. By now anyone with a computer or Verizon Internet service likely has a programmable thermostat, motion sensor outdoor lights, and timers on lamps for when they go on vacation. Is it worth paying a bloated company like Verizon $120 a year to help you manage what you're already handling fine for free?
The nail in the coffin was probably Google purchasing Nest. And no, I did not RTFA.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
"In Soviet America, home automation automates--" nah, I got nothing.
ADT stock just plunged 25% recently because they aren't doing well...
and it hasn't been.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
There should be a link to the classic interface at the bottom of the page. Click it, and you won't be bothered with the beta anymore. At least, when I got drafted months ago, that's how it worked.
You know its funny, these guys once in a while get to a market too early, then because revenue is too weak, decide it isn't promising enough to invest in. Players enter the market (Nest, Google, etc) and it slowly starts to pick up steam. MBA's higher up decide it's been "long enough" so divest themselves of the endeavor. Mark my words, within the next 36 months there will be an explosion in that marketspace, some Verizon executive is going to scream "why didn't we see this" and then they will take 2 years reentering the market they tried to start.
This is why I laugh at large corporation "innovation".
There's just too many DIY options out there for self monitoring to make it worth paying somebody else to do what the owner can themselves. But then again there certainly are different needs for different people. For example EyezOn has a module called Envisalink 3 which works with DSC and Honeywell security systems: it makes them accessible via the web and alerts can be sent via text/email to a number of contacts for a number of events. I've had the module for about a year now, picked it up for around $130, it was easy to install and I am very happy with it. Just throwing it out there.
That is simply not true. These guys have been offering third party monitoring for DIY home security for over a decade.
http://www.smarthome.com/alarm...
It was mostly things like remote controlled power strips, IP cameras, thermostats, and electronic door locks. I'm not surprised they stopped selling the service since most of those things either don't need a computer to control (IP cameras with a built-in server or a central reciever for multiple cameras) or could just be set to a timer (power outlets and thermostats). It was a neat service for people who didn't want to put in the effort to setup their own stuff and wanted a all-in-one deal to control all of those things but kind of useless in the end.
I'd like to live in a society where I was worshiped as a god...but that's not going to happen either.
Larry Ellison, is that you?
I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.