As end date for Hive IoT announced, is the end of cloud connected stuff in sight ?

I must confess to being on your side Andy - the idea of something that stops working at the first sign of internet failure or supplier bankruptcy feels like a recipe for a disaster at some point, and I go out of my way to avoid it.

Equally we both have worked with hardware of the sort that does a lot of damage if control is lost, and that is a different sort of design.

However it is not a popular view.

The idea of posting  the tons of now useless devices back to the company would be appealing if they had a physical address, but I suspect in many cases the offices etc are all rented and the kit made abroad and there is simply no provision. A change in WEEE like directive would  not work if the subsidiary company has folded.

Mike.

PS just seem this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62142208

it appears that BMW drivers can rent the option of over the network activated heated seats.  I am clearly alone in seeing a great hacking/ denial of service flaw with this, even ignoring the register quote that "it may feel like buying a mug and having to rent the handle". Which is a sentiment I agree with as well, but I do not have a BMW and probably never will.

mapj1 said:

. A change in WEEE like directive would  not work if the subsidiary company has folded.

Oh absolutely. As you can imagine I was thinking more of the business decision "we'll just drop that service line because we want to jump into a more profitable business" without having to take responsibility for the consequences...even then I'm sure it would be incredibly hard to police in practice...

Yes I dread the day (which I'm sure will come) when there will be no choice but to buy a car where aspects of it can be controlled remotely, not (entirely) because I don't trust suppliers to manage the remote control correctly, but because i don't want to change a five year old car just because a supplier's got bored of supporting it...or gone bust.  

mapj1 said:

However it is not a popular view.

Absolutely, since the early 1980s the MBA mantra has been "provide services, not products", which this is all tied up in. As I've mentioned before on here, I consider myself very lucky to have worked in two very different industries both of which were based around supplying electronic products that would keep operating for 30, 40, 50 years! Maybe the current global shortage of raw materials for electronic components could drive a rethink? Although wouldn't help with the original post where a company just decides to exit a market and doesn't care if it's customer's can find an alternative to their now dead lumps of silicon.

mapj1 said:

. A change in WEEE like directive would  not work if the subsidiary company has folded.

Oh absolutely. As you can imagine I was thinking more of the business decision "we'll just drop that service line because we want to jump into a more profitable business" without having to take responsibility for the consequences...even then I'm sure it would be incredibly hard to police in practice...

Yes I dread the day (which I'm sure will come) when there will be no choice but to buy a car where aspects of it can be controlled remotely, not (entirely) because I don't trust suppliers to manage the remote control correctly, but because i don't want to change a five year old car just because a supplier's got bored of supporting it...or gone bust.  

mapj1 said:

However it is not a popular view.

Absolutely, since the early 1980s the MBA mantra has been "provide services, not products", which this is all tied up in. As I've mentioned before on here, I consider myself very lucky to have worked in two very different industries both of which were based around supplying electronic products that would keep operating for 30, 40, 50 years! Maybe the current global shortage of raw materials for electronic components could drive a rethink? Although wouldn't help with the original post where a company just decides to exit a market and doesn't care if it's customer's can find an alternative to their now dead lumps of silicon.