1) Their lights/bridge are by far the most reliable IoT product I've used. A 9/10 where other products (Wink, GE, Lutron) are at best 3/10.
2) While 3rd party bulbs were sort of supported, it wasn't advertised. I've never seen it described as a interoperable Zigbee Light Link device.
3) My attempts at getting a GE bulb working were inconsistent, and even when it did work the brightness range and responsiveness were worse than the hue bulbs. I had constant disconnections where I had to re-add the bulb as well. I imagine many people blamed philips when in fact the problem was with the cheap 15.00 bulb. This is probably the reason for discontinuing unofficial support.
I don't like the fact that there's not a thriving range of interoperable, cheap, and high quality zigbee light link devices out there. I'm happy the Philips is focused on delivering a product that actually works, however. All of my other home automation purchases have ended with many wasted hours and eventual returns.
If people blamed Phillips for this, then there is quite easy solution. Allow people to activate the 3rd party access, but do it Android way. Hide the option from plain sight, force users to read quick warning message about 3rd party bulbs can affect or damage system. This way only people that did their homework will be able to reactivate it.
People will blindly follow a tutorial online that tells them how to activate this option, and continue to contact Philips for support. I've worked on products that have these unsupported/advanced modes, and customer queries on them are constant and time-consuming, even to simply dismiss (and, of course, those customers then go on to leave bad reviews, et cetera).
The Chromebook method (to disable write protect) requires you to open the device and remove a specific screw, it's beyond just blindly following instructions.
I've been using the Wink hub with a variety of different z-wave light switches, electrical outlets, plug adapters, and even a thermostat for the last 6 months. I DEFINITELY feel like the Wink hub is the weak link. It needs resetting frequently enough that I don't really trust that I'll be able to turn on my heat remotely when coming back from vacation, so my neighbor is usually on notice for manual backup (let himself in, turn on the heat).
Just today I was reading about the SmartThings Hub (Samsung) and the Casa Verde Vera Lite- It really seems like the Hub is where the polish needs applying in HA. I can link the Wink to my Echo and control things very easily, adding new things is relatively easy, but jeez that Wink hub is finicky.
It's realistic in that the RT to an Internet service isn't where it seems to break down. It breaks down at the hub that spazzes out and goes into limp mode (which as far as I can tell is simply a flashing status indicator of different colors) and won't respond to commands. Sure, it can cause lag and sometimes there is a full second or two difference from command to action, but it's usually snappy enough that the light on z-wave control turns off barely slower than the light directly toggled by the switch. That being said, if there was a hub that required the Internet service just to perform the away from home/mobile functions but let all the scheduled timers, scenes, robots, etc. perform without Internet, I would happily jump ship. OpenHAB is a PITA and the shortcuts in iOS that you get with Wink/IFTTT and the Amazon Echo integration would all have to be hand rolled. While I've already written some of my own Alexa Apps, I don't want to go back to OpenHAB for all the rest.
1) Their lights/bridge are by far the most reliable IoT product I've used. A 9/10 where other products (Wink, GE, Lutron) are at best 3/10.
2) While 3rd party bulbs were sort of supported, it wasn't advertised. I've never seen it described as a interoperable Zigbee Light Link device.
3) My attempts at getting a GE bulb working were inconsistent, and even when it did work the brightness range and responsiveness were worse than the hue bulbs. I had constant disconnections where I had to re-add the bulb as well. I imagine many people blamed philips when in fact the problem was with the cheap 15.00 bulb. This is probably the reason for discontinuing unofficial support.
I don't like the fact that there's not a thriving range of interoperable, cheap, and high quality zigbee light link devices out there. I'm happy the Philips is focused on delivering a product that actually works, however. All of my other home automation purchases have ended with many wasted hours and eventual returns.