Philips updates Hue, introduces lightbulb DRM

 

 Philips Hue is a smart light system that’s designed to allow users to create their own lighting “scenes” using pricey bulbs that interface with smartphone apps on iOS and Android. Philips uses the Zigbee protocol for communication between the Hue bulbs and the network bridge station, which means that Hue should support third-party bulbs. Up until recently, it has. Now, however, Philips has deployed an updated firmware that locks out third-party devices that haven’t already been qualified under its new Friends of Hue program.
One user burned by the change describes the problem well: “One reason we based this system on Philips Hue is that Philips is a member of the Connected Lighting Alliance. [Its] mission statement is ‘to promote and stimulate the development of open standard wireless lighting solutions that are maximally interoperable and provide value to end users,” which from a technical perspective means their system speaks the Zigbee Light Link protocol and is interoperable with other brands that speak the same language.
“This is especially important because Philips doesn’t offer certain products, but others do. Such as a light bulb with an E14 socket. So in that case, it was possible to integrate an Osram Lightify bulb that had that socket.”
Now, that’s going away. Philips new firmware update blocks devices that weren’t previously attached to a network unless those devices have been certified under the brand-new Friends of Hue program. The company’s cites several reasons for the change in a recent blog post:
“Next to confusing differences in setup and resetting, we’ve encountered a number of such issues over the years including 3rd party lights which do not turn off when we fade them to off, lights which do not react correctly to scene recalls and lights which stop proper functioning of our Wireless Dimmer Kits. Since the Philips Hue system is continuously updating there is no way to guarantee continued interoperability unless all compatible products are put under continuous test like our own.”

Keurig 2.0?

The interoperability issues Philips describes may well be real, but that claim didn’t help rival Keurig earlier this year. That company introduced a new version of its Keurig brewing system that only accepted Keurig-branded coffee pods. The Keurig pods were more expensive than competing brands and often didn’t offer the same variety of options that customers were accustomed to with earlier brewing machine models. The result? Sales of the new device tanked, and Keurig abruptly announced it would change course and offer the option to brew non-Keurig-branded pods in Keurig hardware once again.
It’s worth noting that a Philips A19 9W smart light bulb costs $60 (60W equivalent). An Osram Lightify bulb compatible with other ZigBee products (including, as the earlier quote noted, the Philips Hue system) runs $28.50. It’s hard to compete against products that cost half as much as yours do, which could explain why Philips is suddenly declaring that the only thing it can afford to do is certify other manufacturers’ products under the Friends of Hue program.
Furthermore, you can bet such certification, if it actually exists, doesn’t come cheap. Companies that “certify” hardware for interoperability in a situation like this almost always charge a fee for doing so. After all, Philips isn’t going to create a continuous testing lab for other manufacturers’ hardware, then run it for free indefinitely. This is a way of extracting profits from other manufacturers, either by forcing them to raise their own prices (and compete less effectively against Philips to pay for the testing) or to simply shove customers towards its own hardware. Every single product currently listed on the Friends of Hue webpage is manufactured by Philips.
If Keurig’s woes are any indication, Philips should tread lightly here. Sales of Keurig 2.0 were terrible once news of its DRM lock got out, and the manufacturer is facing multiple lawsuits from customers who bought Keurig hardware without knowing it was DRM-locked.