Hey everyone,
for years now, the whole smarthome/homeautomation topic was only a topic for my free time outside work, but I’m currently trying to get a better understanding if that field would also potentially be interesting for me as something to work in for a living. A lot of (especially big) companies mainly focus their efforts on cloud-only solutions, and as for me the local-only/first philosophy of HA is a big thing, I’m trying to get a better understanding of the motivations of bigger companies. A few things I can come up with myself, and I’m currently trying to get some conversations going with some of those bigger companies to understand their reasoning “first hand”, but in the meantime I’d be curious what you think (or know) about why “cloud only” is currently the way to go for a lot of companies.
What I came up with so far:
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Less effort and risk: when you want/need to offer a cloud-based solution anyway (because company strategy), then putting additonal effort (and an increased risk for things breaking and creating support cases) into an on-top local approach will cost you money, and potentially reputation if things don’t work out.
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Small target group: compared to the millions and millions of people who have a smartphone and a washing machine and just want things to work, the core group of “privacy first” people is a very small one. Every Euro/Dollar spent there is therefore a less attractive investment. (Also: the group of “local ONLY” people is even smaller. How many HA users, me included, in the end “give up” and do install that integration that is built around the cloud api of the vendor, and how many are left who don’t?)
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User lock-in: anything that needs an account and gets people used to your own app creates a certain lock-in effect. The strength of HA (allowing people to freely choose devices and integrations and vendors) is actually a disadvantage for a company from that perspective
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Cross-selling: the app that tells your endusers that their dishwasher is done can easily advertise the “perfect” dishwasher soap from your business partner => additional revenue
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Up-selling: when you know that a household bought a washing machine and a dishwasher from your brand, you can use the contact to that enduser to advertise the perfectly fitting clothes dryer. And in the (very) long run, the moment you know that the device is broken beyond repair, you can offer a discount for a replacement device, as you are the one who knows first that it’s broken, even before the owner knows
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User/usage data: understanding your client is super important, but anyone who buys an IKEA lightbulb in cash and then at home connects it to a zigbee stick and HA stays invisible to you. As a company you need to understand your customers to make decisions around where you want to go with your smarthome efforts.
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Easier development and iteration: with a cloud/app approach, the moment you implemented a cool new feature you can easily role it out to everyone, as long as they are connected to an appstore. Reaching users who use a local interface (and therefore convincing them that you built a really cool thing and that you are a top brand) is way harder and in a lot of cases simply impossible.
Those are the first and obvious ones that came to mind for me, what else can you think of? I’d be curious 
Cheers!