Insteon looks dead

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/shameful-insteon-looks-dead-just-like-its-users-smart-homes/
The smart home company Insteon has vanished.

The entire company seems to have abruptly shut down just before the weekend, breaking users' cloud-dependent smart-home setups without warning. Users say the service has been down for three days now despite the company status page saying, "All Services Online." The company forums are down, and no one is replying to users on social media.

As Internet of Things reporter Stacey Higginbotham points out, high-ranking Insteon executives, including CEO Rob Lilleness, have scrubbed the company from their LinkedIn accounts. In the time it took to write this article, Lilleness also removed his name and picture from his LinkedIn profile. It seems like that is the most communication longtime Insteon customers are going to get.
https://www.insteon.com/news2022
Dear Insteon Community,
If you want their equipment for a open-source solution, now might be a good time to buy it.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
The joy of buying products from a leading edge company with a product that has no ip protection and hundreds of competitors running only a few days behind. Especially a product that requires on-going web-based support just to turn your lights on.

No US Patents, no patent applications. Maybe they were licensing something from someone - but I doubt it. I have trouble feeling sorry for the users who were gambling on a vendor of questionable viability selling a product that explodes if ongoing support is cut.
 
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Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079

IoT Cloud Services are so grand.

https://www.fierceelectronics.com/sensors/insteons-apparent-shutdown-shows-consumers-are-guinea-pigs
Johannes Himmelreich, a professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse, argued that the Insteon episode illustrates “consumers are like guinea pigs.” His work focuses on ethics of emerging technology and data science.

Himmelreich said most customers don’t realize their vacuum, doorbell or camera system are “so dependent on cloud software…Without open standards and interoperability, consumers pay the price of innovation. Buying from startups is like an investment, just without the benefits. You place a bet that the people you buy from survive in the market. But if they don’t, that’s on you.”
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Buying from startups is like an investment, just without the benefits.
What an ill-informed individual. An investment without a benefit is called a donation. At best, it is a gamble.

Insteon had nothing but promises behind their products. Lights out, dark, dead. I hope nobody is locked out of their house with the dog waiting to be fed.
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,501
I hope nobody is locked out of their house with the dog waiting to be fed.
Even worse they are locked out and dog really needs out. That can't end well.

Seriously I can't imagine anyone who would strictly depend on "the cloud". Heck not long ago Amazon had a major outage and while services resumes quickly everything was down. Anything I do that is important has a manual backup. I can't imagine anything less. Stuff happens!

The five-hour outage Dec. 7, AWS engineers wrote in a postmortem, was caused by a glitch in some automated software that led to “unexpected behavior” that then “overwhelmed” AWS networking devices and hit computer systems on the East Coast.
Ron
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,706
Exactly.
Even though we all indulge in using high-tech I don't trust it and depend on it.
I don't use a smart phone. All my passwords are written down on paper (in two locations). I don't have anything important on the cloud. My important backups are on multiple CDROMs, USB sticks and harddrives.
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
It's just a small setback.
https://web.archive.org/web/2019041...elerate-the-companys-push-in-the-iot-industry
“I’ve been following Smartlabs almost from when they started. Their Insteon line remains arguably the strongest in the IoT space for controlling and communicating with electrical components in one’s home—whether via Amazon Alexa, smartphones, pads, or traditional wall plates and remotes,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst, Enderle Group. “Additionally, Rob Lilleness, with his background helping to build Microsoft’s networking business, is one of the few people that has both the resources and experience to take Smartlabs where I’ve always believed they could go.”
Go under?
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
said Rob Enderle, principal analyst, Enderle Group "...has both the resources and experience to take Smartlabs where I’ve always believed they could go.”
Should we short other stocks this guy recommends? After all, he appears to be a principal analyst at his own company. Maybe someday he'll be promoted to a "c-suite" position at his own company. Or maybe he demoted himself to principal analyst from CEO.
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
CNN+ -> CNN- after one month.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/21/media/cnn-shutting-down/index.html
CNN+, the streaming service that was hyped as one of the most significant developments in the history of CNN, will shut down on April 30, just one month after it launched.
CNN+ customers "will receive prorated refunds of subscription fees," the company said.
...
One CNN+ staffer at the town hall described the sentiment as "total and utter shock" that morphed into despair.
"At first people were really freaking out," explained the person, who requested anonymity to candidly describe the situation. "And then, toward the end of the meeting, it just turned to sadness. Every team was just huddling with each other."
"CNN had poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the new streaming app"
 
Insteon's revenue model - how did they make enough money to pay the fat executives and keep the servers running?
By adding a few bucks to the price of light switches? I don't see this cloud-based IoT surviving even with a monthly subscription fee. The MBA's are also to blame for this silly business plan.
 
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