[wzwy]

There should be a different lifetime attached to these cloud-based smart home devices. It's an implicit lifetime separate than the hardware: how long can the company last? And what's their frequency of plug-pulling? If it's not an established company, I would be wary buying anything from them. Even established companies tend to pull the plugs on cloud-based hardware, so caution also applies to them.

My current guideline for purchasing:

- How long will the company last? - How likely is it for the company to sunset a product? - Are there fallbacks in place in case of company closure or server shutdown? This should be supplied by the company, and not cobbled together by users after losing server connection.

[taneq]

The biggest thing, I think, is that it needs to be clearly advertised on the packet (in a “batteries not included” style) that the device depends on XX service provided by YY company.