I am glad I didn’t buy into this whole IoT (Internet of things)/smart home hub devices which sounds nice on the surface, but is rife with privacy/security concerns as well as these companies being able to dumb down or completely brick those pieces of hardware that were purchased (like when they close up shop or institute a new subscription model that wasn’t part of the original purchase).
Norwegian based Futurehome began selling their smarthub product (a ~$275 US “central hub for controlling Internet-connected devices in smart homes”) back in 2016, but have since had to declare bankruptcy. As a result, the company decided to turn that smarthub into a subscription service in order for all of its functionality to continue working.
For years, the Norwegian company sold its products, which also include smart thermostats, smart lighting, and smart fire and carbon monoxide alarms, for a one-time fee that included access to its companion app and cloud platform for control and automation. As of June 26, though, those core features require a 1,188 NOK (about $116.56) annual subscription fee, turning the smart home devices into dumb ones if users don’t pay up.
Sure, the hub still works manually (defeating the original intent of a smarthub that automatically manages all of that). When it comes to topics like this, I end up putting on my highly opinionated hat where people wonder (in spite of my “jack of all trades, master of none” tech background) why I am so cynical about this continued trend of online only subscription based services when it comes to both hardware and software (including the whole games as a service business model that has overtaken the gaming industry where the end result is a trail of dead games that can no longer be played).
This also isn’t anything new in the smart home category. In the case of Google’s 1st and 2nd generation Nest thermostats, they announced the ending of support in October 2025 (which means most of its connected features will no longer function). As the article mentions, those devices were ones that existed prior to Google’s acquisition of the company. They (Google) insultingly say both of them had “long lives” and that they will still work as regular “dumb”thermostats (which meant you could’ve just saved yourself a lot of money by purchasing one of those instead). The article also notes Google providing some “compensation” (for consumers in the U.S.) in the form of discounts for upgrading to a new model. How quaint… buy a newer version of the product (in “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” fashion) and hope that down the road, Google doesn’t do the same thing with pulling support.
The main thing this cements for me is a further distrust of big tech embedding itself too deeply in your life (I don’t even rely heavily on iCloud since I don’t want to be tied to any companies ecosystem).
