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The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
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Homey @ Mediamarkt - why on earth would you buy it?
Today I red in the paper that nowadays you can buy the Homey in several 'normal' shops. Like shops where your grandmother would end up buying you christmas presents.
First of all; WELL DONE! Great achievement.
Second of all; VERY daring.
Third of all; I am really, really sorry for a lot of people who are gonna be disappointed. And that's gonna be heaps.
But serious; why on earth would you wanne buy it? It can do NOTHING at all without tons of other (ZWave) hardware. You pay 300 EUR to replace your RC of your TV / receiver? Normal people will think it sucks. I am still a tiny bit a nerd, but hardly enough to get anything out of the Homey. I already had a lot of Zwave stuff, and my Vera crashed, and was slow, and too nerdy for me.. so I bought a Homey, and I like it. My whole family likes it. Great for me. But for the rest of the world? NO WAY!
Can you image, Klaas, John or Kees getting one for Christmas? Finding out they can do shit with it, and it's hard to make it do anything? And you need a shitload of other hardware to do anything? And it even can't find a basic remote control of your TV? And the app can turn your tv OFF, but not on? So, WOW, you got a 300 EUR piece of hardware which can't do shit?
I don't think the world is ready for it, people won't understand what to do with it, people will get disappointed because it can do shit by itself.
My opion; big, big mistake.
But well, I hope it works. More users is more support for the rest of the world.
Goodluck guys.. you're gonna need it.
First of all; WELL DONE! Great achievement.
Second of all; VERY daring.
Third of all; I am really, really sorry for a lot of people who are gonna be disappointed. And that's gonna be heaps.
But serious; why on earth would you wanne buy it? It can do NOTHING at all without tons of other (ZWave) hardware. You pay 300 EUR to replace your RC of your TV / receiver? Normal people will think it sucks. I am still a tiny bit a nerd, but hardly enough to get anything out of the Homey. I already had a lot of Zwave stuff, and my Vera crashed, and was slow, and too nerdy for me.. so I bought a Homey, and I like it. My whole family likes it. Great for me. But for the rest of the world? NO WAY!
Can you image, Klaas, John or Kees getting one for Christmas? Finding out they can do shit with it, and it's hard to make it do anything? And you need a shitload of other hardware to do anything? And it even can't find a basic remote control of your TV? And the app can turn your tv OFF, but not on? So, WOW, you got a 300 EUR piece of hardware which can't do shit?
I don't think the world is ready for it, people won't understand what to do with it, people will get disappointed because it can do shit by itself.
My opion; big, big mistake.
But well, I hope it works. More users is more support for the rest of the world.
Goodluck guys.. you're gonna need it.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Question is if Homey is user friendly enough for the people who already use KAKU stuff and want to take it to the next level. As far as user interface goes I think it can do the job. But there are still challenges concerning pairing devices and more advanced stuff. You need some geek skills once in a while to get things to work (stable).
If Athom and the community can help out this new user base I think it can come a long way and improve over time.
If I buy as normal user a Homey tomorrow than I would it bring beck on Monday.
Why shoelt homey not?
Red it alott of times her, but not getting wy every on saing it.
IR is so 2016 and vurther.
It is a beautiful product and a lot had happened the last year but it is stil no reliable product.
So wat? Almost every Hifi, TV, home cinema device use it. Logitechs hubs ar working superb and ar, reding her, superior on homey.
People by Logitech hubs because the neet IR and homey can not do it.
Homey €300
Logitech hub €250
I tink IR is the mostly used wireles tech in a modern house,after wifi.
My2sents
Off course people need to have or buy supported hardware, but isn't this how we all started? Buying one Kaku device and expanding step by step with more devices.
People in the Mediamarkt will buy it because they like the way it looks. A nice toy. And those ppl will be disappointed.
BTW: Infrared and Homey.. does that work?
At the same time I have concerns, as I don't think Homey really is a consumer device.
A while ago I showed Homey to my parents in my house, showed what it could do but also what it takes to set it all up. They were immediately impressed with the possibilities, but after seeing what it takes their comment was: well, we can not do this, you can set it up for us..
I feel a lot depends on how Homey is presented in stores. If Homey is presented as a plug-and-play device, a lot of new buyers will be disappointed when they get home. Home Automation in general has not achieved that level yet, so Homey can't possibly live up to that promise to buyers. It will need a technically savvy person to set up correctly. And after initial setup, it will need a little maintenance from time to time.
To Athom's credit, they have built a wonderful machine with good software, but setting it up is nowhere near as simple as installing a TV or a microwave. Homey buyers should be aware of that. Good presentation will (and should) do that.
At the same time I also feel the software is not as good as it could have been, both from a technical (IR is an example) and from a user interface perspective (even up to the point that I think they should hire a UI\UX designer with more experience).
Fortunately Athom now appears to have their update procedure well under control and I can only hope they will make extensive use of it...
With regard to the IR comments: IR is still the most widely used control technology in consumer products today, especially considering not everyone has the latest products at home and older products are often used elsewhere in the house. I feel Athom should have put a lot more effort into getting IR to work reliably.
But again: updates, updates..
Maybe I'll be getting my parents a Homey for Christmas after all..
DenW
@OP: I think the title of this thread could be reworded a little bit more positively. Scaring off potential buyers is in no-one's interest.
somebody has to try and trigger the normal people to start with domotica
15 years ago people said computers are just a big calculator.
nowadays its just a small step and we will call them gods.
progress starts at easy delivery . athom takes this first steps.
sometimes you fall during these baby steps but after a few times you can even run.
ps the only things in my house that uses ir is my 10 year ood fireplace and those dawn tv.s that cant seem to make progress (and then fact ir on battery can last for years)
Just looking for what you miss, not what u got.
"En zie je dan de zon, of zoek je achter alles de schaduw op de grond"
IR is working fine here, no problems at all.
If you have other questions about IR, just ask in the forums. Dont use this post for that.
If you think it's a big mistake thats fine. Most of the people like it!
Tip for title: homey know what you're buying
Good thing I'm an atheist..
I agree with the easy delivery bit.. but for that to happen the underlying technology must be ready. And imho it is not as there are simply too many of them. And none of them easy to implement\understand.
Joe Consumer does not know and does (and should!) not care about these technologies. It should just work for it to have any consumer acceptance. And in Home Automation, there is a long way to go.. But Homey definitely is a (big) step in the right direction as it tries to unify the different protocols (at least from a user perspective).
Homey is a most user-friendly Home Automation device. If set up correctly it can do its job well.. and it will only get better and more versatile in time..
But Homey is different.
Since the beginning, Homey has pushed the boundaries. They have made a product like no other. It is the true home automation platform for the serious tweaker/maker/hackers and now, it is available for everyone at a reasonable price.
Homey has stayed true to it's nature and that is why I love it and that is why I think many people will love it.
I'm not aware of a gadget that can control almost all my devices in my house okay with a little bit of help from my logitech Harmony
tv check
curtain check
xbox check
ps check
motion detection check
amplifier check
dimmer check
vacuum-cleaner check
doorbel check
htpc kodi check
security camera / synology check
Speech like a little kid not always listing to me
move shades nope (bluetooth work inprogress???)
bring beer nope (hee you must have something to wish for)
But it has been a longgggg ride to get to this point (Geek backer)
So infrared is not a big thing for me at all.
A device hafing it, and using it is a nother thing.
My AndroidTV kan bee controled by http, but I only use IR by my Harmony One (great device 8 year old device and working flalesly!!).
Explain MM user to use http instet of IR because Homey can't use IR.
I also hafe a Denon receiver and nefer used the WiFi option and only using it by Harmony.
Why shoelt I configure my Vera to use control the TV/Denon by foice if IR is working great?
Also stuf like AC, Vacuum, Fireplases, Beamers, Decoders, LED controllers, etc
Why is my Harmony Remote kapable to receive IR commands for copieing and reuse it to a device and Homey isn;t ?
Maybe it would have been better for athom not to use IR but maybe it will be better later on (I'm wondering this)
So got it yesterday in the Mediamarkt. Installed it and made two flows in 10 mminutes. At the moment I'm typing this message after Homey woke me up by putting the lights on and playing music on my Sonos Play 1. So I'm impressed, I think it can be safely sold in retail to people who are interested in domotica.
Btw, since yesterdays update to 1.0.1 my enthousiasm, as a complete non-geek, is growing even bigger than before. What a progress in all ways!
It is sold in the computer department, not at the tv-hifi stuff.
But when I read the reactions, my thoughts are:
I think it could be (and probably will be) a great product. Yes, even a great consumer product and not only for nerds.
It all depends on the availablity of good apps AND the option to backup your device. The first is obvious I guess. I have an LG WebOS TV and sadly the app is not working. Luckily for me the LG remote is available and the Homey is located right, so I can use that instead. But I have more devices with an API that are not supported (VUDUO setopbox (Enigma2) and Bose soundtouch) right out of the box, read apps.
But maybe even a more frustrating thing users might run into is that all their hard work getting devices and flows into Homey might get lost. There is no way (I know of) that you can backup your Homey system. What if you need to restore to factory setting? To be honest, I am reluctant to program all the flows, because one day everything gets lost and I have to do it all over again.