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Lowe's To Sell Off Its 'Under-Performing' Iris Smart Home Automation Business (cepro.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the short-end-of-the-stick dept.

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."

13 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Massively overpriced by Kokuyo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:Massively overpriced by dknj · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have researched this at large, my one intervening factor is that I must have control over the devices (i.e. everything is accessible from my home network and the devices can never reach the internet). Z-wave fit the bill. I've used several z-wave switches and have realized one major issue with any device you are putting in your wall.. these things radiate a lot of heat and thus you want to make sure your devices use top quality components. This cuts out Crestron and Levitron. This leaves you with GE and Eaton. I went with Eaton first, and while their design isn't the greatest, you can tell from the specs that it can handle serious shit. The largest room with lights comes in at half it's rated wattage (700w or something like that). I was tempted with GE due to the lower price point for 3-way switches. Until I realized the second switch isn't really standalone and explains the lackluster power rating. GE has nicer design, but it doesn't export a lot of functionality to z-wave.

      I ranted to explain that you get what you pay for. I have no worry of my house burning down and I get pretty granular control over my lights and switches. This did add almost 30% to the cost, so once again it's a situation of buyer beware. I didn't mention other zwave interfaces because they are so dirt cheap that it practically doesn't matter.. garage door openers for $50. locks for $200. automated blinds $50. thermostats around the $100 price point (although with the exception of two, they are all 1990 designs) Then there are the DIY z-wave interfaces that allow you to tuck away controllers into the bowels of your basement, or monitor electricity usage.

      -dk

    2. Re:Massively overpriced by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Very good point. I have had a few Z-Wave switches die on me as well due to what I suspect are heat issues. Luckily, Euro pattress boxes are a little roomier, and I went with Düwi switches. Feature-poor and a little old fashioned in terms of Z-Wave functionality, but they keep going, and each dimmer even comes with its own spare fuse... German gründlichkeit.

      As for the price of this stuff, isn't the Z-Wave license fee a big part of that? Also: some jackass holds a patent on "instant notification", the idea that if you switch a light on using the wall switch, the central controller is instantly notified of the change rather than learning of it through a periodic status poll. That patent alone adds €s to the price; these days people expect that switches support that functionality. Still, with high prices (higher still in Europe, believe me...) I didn't find the total overall cost to be that daunting. I did spend a few thousand € on fully automating the house, but I do get a much lower heating bill out of it (Z-Wave allows me to control radiators separately in each room, so we only heat the ones that are in use). And the convenience is worth it - even according to the wife, which is the only real yardstick by which to measure such things.

      What does surprise me about the home automation market is that a lot of manufacturers seem to think we want shoddy products that look like crap, while the functionality isn't very well thought through: there always seems to be one maddingly missing link that keeps us from doing what we want with them. Fibaro are an exception: I can't speak for their controller but their peripherals work very well, they are designed well and feel like premium products.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    3. Re: Massively overpriced by KixWooder · · Score: 2

      While neat, all that is worth about $200 to me at most, not $2000.

      --
      I hate fat people.
  2. The whole automation is missing the point by Cyberax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:The whole automation is missing the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think the automation industry is expecting too much from their investments in the industry that have very thin margins already. And too early in the market. And missing the point as well, like the connected home appliance manufacturers usually do. Automation should make living in and maintaining the property easier instead of adding complexity and cost where there was none before.
        Where are my moisture sensors in the concrete to automatically warn and measure damages from leaks? Where is the automatic traffic warning system that warns the maintenance crews in a large apartment complex from blocking the emergency drive ways so that the local resident board member wouldn't have to call the administrator, who calls the maintenance company or the contractor about the potential threat to the lives of the elderly residents? Where are the p2p connected reservation systems that enable turn based access to shared resources like the laundry machines without the monthly charge from the telecom, the cloud and the service companies?
        Instead I can surf the internet with my fridge.

    2. Re:The whole automation is missing the point by mccalli · · Score: 2

      There are also very few light switches. Plenty of dimmers, but straight on/of? Nope.

      This is fine for lighting in your living room or whatever, but kind of useless for lighting in a utility room or bathroom or what have you. I like the home setup I have but it's definitely incomplete - I would like straightforward on/off switches to be easily available.

    3. Re:The whole automation is missing the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      and a sycophantic obsession on cloud dependence on requiring a connection to the vendors proprietary cloud offering else the hardware becomes a brick, stop it, people don't want to throw away hardware because a company went out of business or a product line got the axe from a merger.

  3. I'm rolling my own now by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    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.
  4. Try the ELK M1 Gold platform by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 2

    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.

  5. Lowes Going the Way of Sears by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

  6. Never Heard of this Shit by sycodon · · Score: 2

    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.
  7. Do I need more? by AndyKron · · Score: 2

    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?