This is a topic that hasn’t come up much, if at all, for kitchen appliances, but it is one that buyers should be made aware of because it is possible that, in some cases, that swanky connected appliance that you bought ends up becoming a useless brick.
To date, this has largely been the preserve of more tech-focused stuff, but connected products, even small appliances and online services, yes, including AI services, have become increasingly more commonplace. A lot of these services, if the service is withdrawn or the company folds, will vanish without a trace, leaving you, the buyer, with a product you bought without the features you paid for or a useless lump.
This is one of the reasons we drone on about connected appliances because most people expect them to last for many years, and all the more so the more expensive and, by extension, the more features they have. Unless they suddenly don’t any longer.
Service No Longer Available
It’s often words that people dread.
By now, most, if not all of us, will have experienced a product or service that we use and sometimes rely upon that is getting canned, often for what seems to make no sense. And a number of people will have experienced a product that has been rendered less useful or totally useless because a service has been shut down.
Appliances Unaffected
It is worth pointing out that, to date, we’ve not seen or heard of any appliances being “bricked” due to a software issue.
We’re not saying it’s not possible, and we’re not saying that it hasn’t happened. Just that we don’t know of it. Yet.
However, there are more reports of machines needing to be registered online for use or functions and so forth, which would suggest that they rely on some sort of connection to something out there to function or be used, at least in some way. Meaning that, whilst we haven’t seen any to date, there likely will be some products that could be affected in the future by these services being ceased.
Services No Longer Supported
This is the crux of this matter.
We don’t think that most reputable manufacturers will cease a service, but they might, and for various reasons.
Many times we’ve seen parts not being available because the maker decided there wasn’t enough left in the field, so not enough use of a part to justify the cost of making them or, having them made so they don’t bother to do that, obsolete the part, and call it a day.
Our concern is that, when the number of products using a particular service hits a point where the costs of maintaining the app/s or servers to make these functions work get too high or, they decide it’s time to move to something newer, people using those functions are just abandoned.
For the moment however, from what we’ve seen and heard from users many of the “online”, “AI” and so on stuff isn’t being used. It appears that once the initial curiosity about them and what they can do wears off, people don’t tend to bother much with these things.
But that’s a problem in itself as, if the product relies on those services to function, even partially, and they’re ceased, then people will rightly be a bit miffed that the perfectly functional appliance they have needs to be potentially replaced for something they don’t care about and isn’t a fault or failure as such.
Laws On This Stuff
There is new EU legislation on this and keeping products in service, but it’s not fully implemented yet; however, it is in place and being rolled out to member states.
Of course, the UK is not in the EU so that legislation won’t apply here. For now.
Whilst this sounds great and, it’s for sure a move in the right direction, we can’t help but think makers will find ways around it.
In short, it’s not likely or at least, you can’t rely on the law covering you here.
Should This Affect What I Buy?
We don’t think that, for now, this is a big problem as we’ve not seen evidence to suggest that it is. But it might become one.
In the smart home world, among others, for the reasons set out above, there is a big push towards what they call “local control”, which means is that a device or service is or can be run locally without the need for a connection to the web. That is so you’re not reliant on a company’s servers online to operate a product and, if they go bust or shut the service down, you’re not left with the choice of being forced to replace the device or accepting limited functionality.
It is more important than people often think it is for those reasons and for privacy because, often, if a device is connected, it’s always reporting what’s going on and what you’re doing with it.
Just think of things you’ll have seen in the news about devices listening to you, watching you and knowing what you’re doing so they can try to sell you more stuff.
A lot of people won’t care and, thats fine.
Just as many do and, the concerns they voice are valid.