
Ask HN: Why haven't open, local smart home ecosystems taken off? - _bxg1
In the wake of the Nest fiasco, I have to wonder, why do people still put up with this? These devices aren&#x27;t <i>that</i> complicated; it&#x27;s not like only the tech giants can afford to build them, and I&#x27;m pretty sure open protocols already exist. Is it just not profitable enough without data collection and&#x2F;or lock-in? Is there a market opportunity here?
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ziddoap
I am 100% unqualified to provide anything factual, but I have some thoughts.

I think it's possible that part of the reasoning is along the lines of:

\- People who want a full smarthome system, and aren't very technical,
generally don't know or care about the implications of said system, and so
they will just buy whatever is cheap/convenient/well-marketed and aren't going
to care if its open or closed.

\- People who want a full smarthome system, and are pretty techincal might
take the opportunity to make outfitting their house as a smarthome a personal
pet project.

~~~
_bxg1
Personally I refuse to install corporate surveillance all over my house, but I
also don't care enough to mess with custom Linux distros and arduinos and
network configuration just to create a (probably really ugly) thermostat that
I could control from my phone.

But I _would_ buy something like Nest off the shelf if it were privacy-
friendly, and open enough that I could write some custom scripts to do neat
things with it. Maybe I represent a niche market.

~~~
ziddoap
I'm 100% with you. I was just putting out a pet theory - the market may appear
to be really niche to potential entrepreneurs.

------
edent
Because no one manufacturer does _everything_.

In my home, I have... Nest alarm, Lifx bulbs, Onkyo speakers, WeMo plugs,
Meross adapters, Alexa voice controls, Toshiba TVs, and a bunch of no-name
Chinese kit.

And none of those manufacturers talk to the same standard. So I end up using
IFTT and I've cobbled together controls out of various open and closed source
code to make them work together.

