Slashdot Mirror
Logitech To Shut Down 'Service and Support' For Harmony Link Devices In 2018 (arstechnica.com)
Logitech recently informed customers that it will be discontinuing service for its popular Harmony Link remote system, which allows users to control home theater and sound equipment from a mobile app. "Customers received an email explaining that Logitech will 'discontinue service and support' for the Harmony Link as of March 16, 2018, adding that Harmony Link devices 'will no longer function after this date,'" reports Ars Technica. From the report: While Logitech is offering a one-time, 35-percent discount on its Harmony Hub to affected customers that are out of warranty, that's not enough for Harmony Link users who are expressing their dissatisfaction on Logitech support forums and Reddit. Users have not experienced major problems with the Harmony Link system that would indicate they are approaching end of life. Harmony Link customers do not pay a subscription or service fee to use the device, either. The only reason provided comes from a Logitech employee with the username Logi_WillWong, who explains in a response post from September 8, 2017 that Logitech will not be renewing a "technology certificate license" that expires in March. No details were provided about how this certificate license allows the Harmony Link to function, but it appears that without it, those devices will not work as promised. "The certificate will not be renewed as we are focusing resources on our current app-based remote, the Harmony Hub," Logi_WillWong added, which seems to indicate that the shutting down of the Harmony Link system is a way to get more customers on the newer Harmony Hub system.
The worst part is that they were selling off remaining inventory at fire sale prices knowing full well they were going to brick them soon, and arranged the timing of the warranty to completely screw the buyers.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Guess again.
The odds of new customers heading this warning never to use Logitech products ever again is minuscule, meanwhile, it's likely at least a small percentage of the affected users will act against their own self interest and buy the new system despite knowing better from this experience.
End result for Logitech is likely positive, despite the fact that in a sane society it would sound their death knell.
Perhaps. But the drip drip does get through eventually. DRM on music was railed against for years before it became publicly accepted that it was a bad thing. We haven't had any big cloud failures yet but the message is getting through. Just wait until Valve or Amazon or Google make a big error. And then wait a bit longer... public understanding of tech is slow to change, but it does change.
That and legislation, because the market doesn't fix everything when companies are colluding, even if people care.
Exactly this.
I have a Logitech Harmony remote. It's a great remote, but the setup experience is absolutely abysmal. The software is Windows only, and dependant on a cloud service that may, or may not, exist tomorrow. Additionally about 80-90% of devices in the library seem to be incorrect in one small way or other (e.g. remote thinks a TV has more inputs than it actually does, resulting in the remote always cycling to the wrong one when changing inputs) which requires a large amount of manual workarounds to setup most systems. If that weren't bad enough, the workflow in their app makes these minor changes as painful as possible to accomplish because it's setup only to work with their specific envisioned perfect world workflow where you simply tell it what devices you have and it guesses at how you have them hooked together and what you might use each one for.
Knowing that the biggest issue was the software, not the hardware, I looked for alternative software, I figured that would also help if/when Logitech decided to discontinue my remote (which actually happened to a friend of mine with a slightly different model). Concordance looked like a godsend, it worked in Linux, and it wasn't affiliated with Logitech. Then I discovered that it mirrors the same workflow, and uses the same web service, and really just provides a way to get the data files from the website to the remote. This is extremely unfortunate as I has hoped to find an actual software independent of Logitech that could keep this thing going.
For now I'm still using the Harmony because it still works, and beats my old method of having 6 different remotes (4 of which were needed just for the simple task of watching TV). But if it stops working at some point (which seems likely, especially if I change any of my hardware and need to reprogram it) I highly doubt I'll be looking to Logitech for the next solution. Unfortunately, there isn't nearly as much competition in this particular space as one might think. (It should also be noted that it's getting harder to do this the same way too, as more devices are moving their remotes to bluetooth instead of IR, something that's much harder to make a universal remote for)
For most other companies that have tried this approach it's worked out great. And no, that's not sarcasm. It appears that very few future customers bother to research this sort of behaviour, it gets very little media attention overall, and unbelievably, a portion of the user base you just screwed over will actually buy your new product despite the fact that they really should know better.
Worse yet, this is becoming so widespread and common that it's actually hard to find a company that isn't willing to resort to these sorts of tactics, and consumers are actually coming to expect it, and actually don't seem to care.
I think you underestimate the willingness of the average consumer to let companies screw them over. It's unlikely this will actually hurt Logitech in any meaningful way, and it may even benefit them as a certain percentage of users actually buy Logitech's newest version despite the fact that they really should know better.
It doesn't hurt any that, as pointed out by other respondents, there isn't nearly as much competition in this space as you'd think.