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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: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Thursday December 17 2015, @10:10PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Thursday December 17 2015, @10:10PM (#277936)

    sounds like you need to read up on the story. [hackaday.com]

    The short version is that, ZigBee standards be damned, your future non-Philips lights won’t be allowed to associate with the Philips bridge. Your GE and Osram bulbs aren’t Friends of Hue. DIY RGB strips in your lighting mix? Not Friends of Hue. In fact, you won’t be surprised to know who the “Friends of Hue” are: other Philips products, and Apple. That’s it. If you were used to running a mixed lighting system, those days are over. If you’re not on the friends list, you are an Enemy of Hue.

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  • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Friday December 18 2015, @12:10AM

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 18 2015, @12:10AM (#278009)

    Apple is on there because Hue works with Apple's Homekit. They don't own Phillips, and Apple certainly does not make lightbulbs for it.