Philips will not block third-party lightbulbs from working with its Hue smart lighting platform after receiving backlash from the community.
Reports of Philips dropping support for third-party lightbulbs over "an increased number of interoperability issues" spread like wildfire, causing quite an uproar among its customers. Philips lightbulbs are more expensive than competitors' products, which is why users voiced out their opinions.
As a result, it looks like the lighting company caved in just after a little over 24 hours, choosing to listen to its customers.
"We recently upgraded the software for Philips Hue to ensure the best seamless connected lighting experience for our customers . . . 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," Philips said.
However, the company also mentioned that lightbulbs that were not certified by its Friends of Hue program may exhibit the "same incompatibility issues," including lights not turning off when they are faded to off, lights not responding properly to scene recalls, and lights affecting the function of Wireless Dimmer Kits.
At any rate, this is a good move on Philips' part. In light of the previous decision, critics couldn't help but compare it with Keurig when the beverage brewing company declared that the Keurig 2.0 would be a DRM product. Keurig ignored its customers, which eventually led to its sales figures plummeting.
Moving forward, Philips is presently working on reversing the upgrade, and the Philips Hue app will prompt users to install the new firmware once it's ready.
It seems that we will still be able to reap the benefits of the Hue smart lighting platform without having to buy a lightbulb that's a part of the Friends of Hue program.
Photo: Sho Hashimoto | Flickr
