
Wink Subscription – Pay $4.99/month or lose access to devices on May 13 - SheinhardtWigCo
https://subscription.wink.com
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SheinhardtWigCo
Email sent to customers:

> Wink has taken many steps in an effort to keep your Hub’s blue light on,
> however, long term costs and recent economic events have caused additional
> strain on our business. Unlike companies that sell user data to offset costs
> associated with offering free services, we do not. Data privacy is one of
> Wink’s core values, and we believe that user data should never be sold for
> marketing or any purpose.

> We have a lot of great ideas on how to expand on Wink’s capabilities and
> satisfy the many requests from our user base. In order to provide for
> development and continued growth, we are transitioning to a $4.99 monthly
> subscription, starting on May 13, 2020. This fee is designed to be as modest
> as possible. Your support will enable us to continue providing you with the
> functionality that you’ve come to rely on, and focus on accelerating new
> integrations and app features.

> Should you choose not to sign up for a subscription you will no longer be
> able to access your Wink devices from the app, with voice control or through
> the API, and your automations will be disabled on May 13. Your device
> connections, settings and automations can be reactivated if you decide to
> subscribe at a later date.

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braythwayt
This is at the convergence of several problems:

1\. Companies that are selling a thing, but don't have a sustainable business
model selling that thing, and; 2\. The Internet of Shit, where you buy things
that used to Just Work, but now they require subscriptions and access to
servers, and can be turned off or bricked at any time.

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swypych
I would love to see the user acquisition model they used to calculate the
viability of this business move. If a Wink Product manager is reading this,
please make notes and in a couple of years when the Wink Lawyers are long
gone, please create one of those "We failed but this is what we learned"
posts.

This pretty much seems like the end, they don't seem to have a buyer for the
organization, no one to bail them out, and they most likely are running out of
whatever cash remains.

Thank you Wink development team for 4 good years, it was not always perfect,
but I did enjoy the user experience.

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asmithmd1
If the US had functioning regulators, they might require Wink to let you
update the device's server

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winknews
Sounds like extortion to me.

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thr0w__4w4y
Yep, pretty much extortion with a gun to the head:
[https://imgur.com/a/OER5oxZ](https://imgur.com/a/OER5oxZ)

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alpenbazi
hahaha, nice, i love the cloud and peoples naive mindset, its a never ending
entertainment

