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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday December 17 2015, @05:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the beating-back-corporate-giants dept.

Philips has backed down over its plan to keep out third-party bulbs from its Hue smart lighting system:

Dutch electronics giant Philips has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over its plans to lock out third-party suppliers of light bulbs for its Hue smart lighting system. [...] Philips' customers have staged a very noisy protest at the move and the firm has backed down. In a statement on the Hue Facebook page, Philips gave a somewhat ungracious explanation about why it had reversed its earlier decision.

"We recently upgraded the software for Philips Hue to ensure the best seamless connected lighting experience for our customers. This change was made in good faith," Philips said. "However, we under-estimated the impact this would have on a small number of customers who use lights from other brands which could not be controlled by the Philips Hue software. In view of the sentiment expressed by our customers, we have decided to reverse the software upgrade so that lights from other brands continue to work as they did before with the Philips Hue system."

Previously: Lightbulb DRM: Philips Locks Purchasers Out Of 3rd-Party Bulbs With Firmware Update


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  • (Score: 1) by BrockDockdale on Thursday December 17 2015, @07:51PM

    by BrockDockdale (5983) on Thursday December 17 2015, @07:51PM (#277852)

    Yeah to me this "ungracious explanation" sounds pretty level-headed and certainly way less hysterical than this summary and all the petty outrage. Doesn't seem all that "embarrassing" or like "backing down" from anything either. There's enough real drama in the world without making it where it doesn't exist.

  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday December 17 2015, @10:56PM

    by edIII (791) on Thursday December 17 2015, @10:56PM (#277968)

    Technically it meets the definition of ungracious, because it was unwelcome and unacceptable as a statement. That being said though, it's probably only because they refused to acknowledge their previous actions were bad. IMO, that was the ungracious part.

    "The change was made in good faith". I'm guessing nobody believes that.

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