from the not-so-smart-home dept
Belkin is the latest company to painfully demonstrate that you no longer own what you buy, and the whims of corporate executives can very often leave you with expensive paperweights.
In a recent statement to customers, Belkin says that it will no longer be providing support or software updates for the company’s Wemo “smart home” devices starting in the new year. About 27 affected devices, on sale since 2015 or so, will no longer receive security updates, work with smart home assistant services like Alexa, or be controllable via app.
Consumers who bought into the Wemo brand thinking they’d created a “smart home of the future” are instead stuck with a mostly useless (and quite dumb) pile of junk. For what it’s worth, a faceless Belkin communications professional claims to feel bad about it:
“We understand this change may disrupt your routines, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”
The writing had, at least, been on the wall for observant consumers. Belkin stopped selling most smart home tech in late 2023, shifting its focus to game console accessories. You might have noticed that was going to happen, and you might not have. You might be able to get “partial refunds” for products still under warranty, but you might not. Good stuff! Very innovative!
This tendency toward bricking perfectly functional electronics is fairly terrible for the environment as well, with organizations like iFixit noting that the United States alone disposes of 500 pounds of electronic waste each second, and USPIRG estimating that “a minimum of 130 million pounds of electronic waste has been created by expired software and canceled cloud services since 2014.”
Filed Under: bricked, consumers, electronics, enshittification, hardware, ownership, security, smart homes, software, support, wemo
Companies: belkin
