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Lowe's To Sell Off Its 'Under-Performing' Iris Smart Home Automation Business (cepro.com)
CIStud shares a report from CE Pro: Giant home improvement retailer Lowe's is giving up on the smart home market. The company announced its "difficult decision" to exit the home automation market and is seeking a buyer for its Iris Smart Home business as part of a "strategic reassessment." The announcement is part of multiple other maneuvers by Lowe's that include closing its Orchard Supply Hardware business, dumping its Alacrity Renovation Service, shutting down all its locations in Mexico, and shutting more than 50 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Lowe's Iris was hailed as the only entry-level home automation system that handled ZigBee, Z-Wave and Wi-Fi when it came out in 2012. Speaking to investors, president and CEO Marvin Ellison [lumped Lowe's Iris in with other initiatives as an] "underperforming... non-core business."
This is not about the specific product but home automation in general:
Am I just naive or is this whole sector massively overpriced?
I have not yet found a product line that would fit all my home automation needs (like lights, door lock, surveillance cameras, garage door, intrusion detection, shutters, smoke detection, home entertainment control and so on), has a UI that doesn't make you want to pull out your hair by the roots AND is actually affordable.
Because let's be honest, a wireless light switch does not cost more than 3 bucks to produce. It just doesn't. And then I keep seeing prices like 20 to 50 bucks a pop.... remember how many switches you need and do the math.
After all this time of home automation being a thing, especially with the smart home appliances Google, Amazon, etc are offering, one would think that doing it yourself with arduino or something comparable could not still be the more versatile and cheaper option. But my gut tells me it is.
So am I being naive or haven I just not yet stumbled upon the right product?
Vivint will take it over.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
The whole home automation industry is missing the point. I spent a lot of time and money on trying different products and I could barely find anything worth using.
Let's look at light switches. What's the main requirement for a light switch? Yep, being able to reliably operate it blindly in the dark. Amazingly enough, quite a few vendors fail this. For example, GE ZigBee switches have almost a one second delay between pressing the switch and light coming on. Sounds trivial but it's actually quite a significant problem.
Let's look at smart outlets next. What is the requirement here? Simple, being able to replace existing outlets in existing electric boxes. Again, there are barely any products capable of doing this.
I'm seriously considering funding a development of the wireless light switch done right - it'll behave like a regular switch but will have a mechanical actuator to flip it remotely.
Simply and plainly because there is not a single home automation system offered that isn't
- insecure as all hell
- phoning home even the most trivial things
- a combination of the two above, i.e. hands some company my house keys (and whoever else that manages to breach their nonexistent security)
- more expensive than the house it's supposed to automate
- simply and plainly broken out of the box
or a combination of all of them.
I know, home automation is still a rather new thing, but frankly, if I with my hobbyist level knowledge of mesh networking, sensors and embedded development can come up with a faster, cheaper, more robust and more secure solution that ANY of the systems I have seen so far, you know something's not right.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Slashdotters interested in a DIY combination security / automation platform might want to check out the ELK M1 Gold. It's not cheap but highly configurable and has been around for a very long time (like, over 15 years I think?). It has outlasted many of its competitors because it's highly modular -- if / when a new protocol like ZWave becomes available, ELK can just make a module for it that plugs right into the bus. They also make a wide range of sensors for just about anything you'd want to do, and best of all, you can write rules that make the system take actions when certain events happen. You can even get affordable third party monitoring for it from Watchlight and a few others. Note that it's NOT a surveillance platform, so no camera support or integration.
I'm an elf so I can see in the dark. What use do I have for a light switch? I don't want you stinky humans, dwarves or halflings in my home.
Now move along.
I have not yet found a product line that would fit all my home automation needs (like lights, door lock, surveillance cameras, garage door, intrusion detection, shutters, smoke detection, home entertainment control and so on), has a UI that doesn't make you want to pull out your hair by the roots AND is actually affordable.
As the saying goes, you can have it good, fast, or cheap. Pick two. I agree that home automation tech to date is a clusterfuck of incompatible standards, sketchy hardware, poor security practices, and godawful interfaces. The problem is that they sell you a device but have no further incentives to actually keep it up to date or to use good network security practices or to actually make something that works well. They just are incentivized to sell you something Good Enough to buy it and don't give a shit after that.
So am I being naive or haven I just not yet stumbled upon the right product?
You're not naive. There are a few decent standalone products out there but I don't think there is a well designed and integrated system for reasonable amounts of money and/or time. And what there is tends to become obsolete or problematic in fairly short order. The worst part is that there is no financial incentive for companies to upgrade or maintain their products once they sell them to you. I haven't found anything I would trust that involved security to my home. Again the problem is that there is no financial incentive for them to build and maintain a good product with good security practices. I have a Nest thermostat which I can verify is a pretty good and (to date) well maintained piece of kit but I haven't found much else worth bothering with. If someone wanted to screw with my thermostat, it's not the end of the world but I'm not feeling the same about my garage door openers if you get my drift. If you want a security system, the best options still seem to be third party services which aren't great but are (usually) better than the roll your own options.
Oh and I don't trust the voice offerings from Amazon, Google, etc for reasons that are pretty self evident as well as the fact I doubt I'd ever use them. Again their incentives don't really align well with mine for those sorts of products. Even if I did trust them, I still don't trust the third party companies I would use to control my lights or doors for the reasons above. Google might hypothetically make a secure product but I have no expectation that the company controlling the locks will be as reliable.
I looked at the Iris - The impression I got was they were really focused on their own line of devices which made me assume incorrectly that it was more proprietary than it was and I also wasn't impressed with the interface. Instead I opted for the SmartThings platform and ran that for a few years but have now switched to the Hubitat Elevation. Local control is best in life.
Lowes is circling the drain... they are quickly learning that the approach for Walmart does not work for home improvement stores. They cannot keep staffing Lowes stores with Walmart-grade employees who can't even tie their own shoes, let alone have a discussion about wire gauge vs. ampacity or concrete pressure ratings.
The whole home automation industry will crash and burn once people realize that your 15 year old house has 15 year old home automation technology and none if it is currently supported.
Homes are durable items. Many are built to last hundreds of years. Filling a house with technology of dubious purpose is a bad investment and home buyers will want these devices removed or upgraded.
This obsolescence and product churn could be avoided if all IoT/Automation providers came together to create interface standards for all of these devices, but the opposite is happening. Companies are creating product silos and the products are not built to last.
Finally, integrating these devices is a pain in the ass. Sure - techies love tinkering with IFTT - but most normal humans don't want to be bothered with that.
And I'm in Lowe's quite a bit.
Plus.... ZigBee, Z-Wave, Orchard Supply, Alacrity, Iris ??
WTF is this shit? What does it do? You sure as hell can't tell from the names.
The surest way to not succeed in business is to shroud your products in mysterious names that do not convey their purpose and obscures how they work.
I guess the Alacrity people would come install this stuff for you? Why would you go to a DIY Home Center to get shot that others would install?
People go to Lowe's to buy hammers, tools, lumber, sinks, lawn mowers, paint, etc. they are even nice enough to put up huge signs with the names of the stuff in the aisles.
I've never seen any sign that says Home Automation.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Now there is home automation. And cheap too.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
I still have X10 and plenty of modules I haven't used yet. My dad still uses a RadioShack standalone X10 controller that he bought 35 years ago and it still turns lights on and off. Do I need more?
I have bought various items and Lutron, IRIS and WINK are the 3 I avoid with a passion. Highly overpriced and poor performers.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
It's a cluster of geek amusement devices.
Much rather have a home
- easier to maintain
- much longer lasting
- much better energy efficiency ***
- reliable where appliances, HVAC, wires, etc don't need to be replaced or fixed as often
- attractive inside and out
Gimmicks like smart electrical outlets are wasteful and the money would be better spent on paying down one's mortgage.
Connected home is a front end cost, a time sink for installation, a brief interlude of less work, then a time sink when the devices are outdated/break/insecure.
hmm, it sounds like EF for very large database systems 5 years after the system's initial release.
https://market-ticker.org/akcs...
problem with Z-wave "security"
https://market-ticker.org/akcs...