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Logitech has announced that information technology will shut downward the entire Harmony Link service on March 2018. Not but will the company terminate providing software updates or service support, the Harmony Link devices themselves won't function after that date.

Logitech's initial communication on the issue was quite terse, telling customers that "On March 16th, 2018, Logitech will discontinue service and support for Harmony Link. Your Harmony Link will no longer function later on this date." But a company employee provided more information in a forum post. According to Logi_WillWong, the event is a "engineering certificate license" that expires in March. And to make matters worse, Logitech'southward solution to this customer cluster…trouble is to offer a 35 pct discount on hereafter Logitech products!

Doggo

This is the cardinal problem with smart homes, smart devices, and the Internet of Things. They aren't your things. We saw this play out when Nest closed Revolv, and we're seeing information technology again here.

This type of activeness is brusk-sighted and incredibly user-unfriendly. IoT devices are a bad deal every bit it is–they're often bug-riddled, insecure, and price far more than they're typically worth–only even if y'all discover a product line that fixes those issues, you've got vendors who have no problem dropping product support at a moment'due south discover.

This approach must be opposed if the concept of owning hardware is to have any meaning whatsoever. IoT manufacturers clearly have no qualms almost charging customers hundreds of dollars for hardware, then flipping a switch and disabling it for reasons that boil down to "Why would we leave it running when nosotros can sell you lot a replacement?"Logitech-Link2

IoT devices and smart homes definitely have a valuable role to play when information technology comes to helping people who are injured, physically disabled, and/or elderly alive their lives. But I can't recommend anyone purchase "smart" devices that'll be shut down in a few years when a light switch or old-fashioned universal remote will do. The first can terminal for decades if congenital properly, and the second costs a fraction of the price as a "smart home" device and won't care if the visitor that built it goes out of business concern or simply stops caring about its previous customers.

Don't buy from companies that pull these shenanigans. Every Harmony Hub sold (that's the replacement for the Link)–with or without a 35 percentage disbelieve–is validation that companies can sunset products when they wish, turn off the functionality they previously offered, and force customers to purchase new products. Until IoT manufacturers manage to find a style to ship hardware with basic capabilities that don't cease working if the manufacturer stops supporting them or goes out of business organization, I'll never recommend a smart dwelling house production.