Hey,
Love the system, love the price, love the willingness to always improve an already great product. I love being able to see and recognize that point in any emerging tech sector’s evolution where the economies of scale tip in favor of the consumer (totally deliberate play in words there.).
It is always so rare for those who were lauded as the early innovators in an emerging marketplace to recognize this point much less act upon it. They fail to either adjust pricing appropriately or introduce a version of model which is postured for the masses. Often they maintain the high pricing structure which was needed to fund R&D and development, despite having long since paid off those bills. And more times than not hold themselves up as the top tier option in their sector, basically saying “If you want the quality and features of the original, it’s going to cost you.” Right up until the point a Wyze comes along and upsets the appletree. I can think of a few examples of this right off the top of my head:
Nest- The obvious example, right? They are going to see their market share in their cameras errode with Wyze offering the same or better. But they are about to feel it on multiple fronts of their product line and are poorly postured to respond due to their policy of not playing well with others. Smart Thermostats are spreading and new lower tiers are being offered. But what’s really going to hurt them is an obscure company called Roost. Google them, they offer a $30.00 “Smart Battery” which looks like a 9VDC battery. When you put this Roost Smart Battery into a run of the mill $20.00 smoke detector which uses a 9VDC battery for backup or operation, it magically turns that cheap sums some detector smart, and for half the cost. If you run a hardwired integrated smoke/ CO detector system in the house, you only need a single Roost Smart Battery for basic notification features.
Blackberry - They introduced Texting and Driving to the masses, and really didn’t listen to consumer needs. They finally got it, but their market-share was anemic compared to when they were the newest way to never unplug.
Tesla- They get an honorable mention and a bonus for trying to stay ahead of the tipping scale by introducing the more affordable Model 3. However their not just getting to swim against the current, their trying to swim in water which the currents never stop shifting. In fact this is a sector that can downright depress you if you think about it, and isn’t really as good example because of the unique factors that have impacts. Did you catch the national news story about that new Tesla Automotive innovation breakthrough that was on that weak? No? That’s because it wasn’t, they haven’t had any attention since our boy Elon ordered his engineers to launch his car up into space for funnsies! But why, what made people’s interest wane in that company’s awesome cars? The answer can be captured in two words: Oil Prices.
Anyway, I love watching Wyze just killin’ it. Now the only reason to purchase a Nest camera is because a person somehow believes it represents a status symbol. And they’re right it does, as does Wyze. Nest = Overpriced & Revenue Focused. Wyze = Right-Priced Customer Focused.
Ok, I actually do have a few bugs to report on the new firmware. I apologize if these have been addressed before, I didn’t really have time to look because I wrote this book!!
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What happened to the zoom!!?? The ability to zoom in on both stationary and PTZ cameras seems to have been significantly curtailed, and that makes me sad. Please bring zoom back!!!
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My PTZ camera keeps panning up and to the idle position while I’m logged on and trying to show people my dog Savannah sleeping on the couch!!! It happens about 15 seconds after I log into the camera and pan over and down.
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On a good note, the issue I was having where I was having to cycle the power daily on my stationary cameras to access them through the app appears to have been fixed!!!
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Are there any plans to provide PC & Mac browser-based access to the camera feeds? I work in a secure facility and don’t have access to my cell for 8-14 hours per day. That’s kind of a long time to go without seeing my dog Savannah sleeping… Just sayin.
Thanks!!!
Pete