With Wyze FINNALLY releasing the webviewer it seems like, in my opinion, their business model is becoming more and clear and its not for the good. Everything is being roped in behind the paywall that is Cam Plus. The whole reason I started purchasing Wyze products was because they were affordable and had no subscriptions. Now everything is becoming “Goods as a Service”. I have no problem if they want to charge for recording storage but locking features behind a paywall is scummy to me. Want person or package detection? How about the ability to see your cameras on a PC? Gotta pay for an extra monthly service for that. Want to use a motion, leak, or temperature sensor, Nope, gotta pay for a home monitoring service. I am actually shocked that the 12 second recording hasn’t disappeared yet.
Free services for the life of a device are a good growth model, but not a sustainable business model. That’s why Blink dropped their free online storage when they introduced their current cameras. (Be thankful Wyze hasn’t done that).
I’d rather see Wyze charge for additional services than go the route of Wink. (Not a typo of Blink).
- I’m not trolling anyone, subscriptions for features that should be included with the product is not trolling. 2.
[Mod Edit]
As I said i am shocked the 12 second recording hasn’t gone away. Im sure it will soon. I would much rather pay more for a device and get all of the features that it should have than pay a subscription forever. This is turning into a “Free to play” game. “We’re gonna sell you something cheap and then once you incorporate it into your home, then will upcharge you to use any useful features”
Except the “features” include many that are dependent on externally run servers. It was never a logical proposition to offer such free services indefinitely. If you took the cost of CamPlus amortized over a just a 5 year lifespan then the cameras would have sold for $150-$200 instead of $20, and no one would have bought them. Would you have?
For me that’s exactly why I never even looked at the Arlos of the world. Too expensive. (And I don’t think they even include perpetual cloud services at that price either?)
Having something go away that was an advertised feature of a device would cause legal issues.
If the 12 second recordings (with cooldown period in between) were going to go away, it would happen on new devices. That’s what Blink did with their free online storage.
As I said, providing any service for free for the life of a device is a typical startup play. Wyze isn’t the first place I’ve seen this that later had to worry about paying the bills (unlike a startup that typically burns money to grow), and it won’t be the last.
Wyze has always promised the 12 second recording. That hasn’t varied. They also promised person detection on V2s. That hasn’t varied. The V3 brought a new era, and that hasn’t varied either. There was never a promise of person detection on V3s.
But yes, the original business model of giving everything away for free has varied. They can’t keep doing that, and still keep the servers up. They need the help of people willing to pay for ‘extras’, like most all businesses do nowadays.