SmartThings delays its next-gen smart home products

Even though the products have been built and are currently being tested, SmartThings felt it necessary to postpone the launch from the second quarter to what will most likely be the third quarter, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.

One of the goals with the new hub is to improve stability compared to its current offering, and this seems to be taking longer than originally thought. The company has been performing lots of additional testing to address many recent disruptions users have experienced, it said.

When they work, the SmartThings hub and connected sensors can be used to control lights, thermostats, doors and warn about things such as water leaks. However, users of the current hub have been suffering from device control and connectivity issues and apps that don't execute properly, leaving them unable to fully control their homes. The company's status website lists six incidents between just March 23 and 31.

To address those issues once and for all, SmartThings is upgrading the connectivity layer and changing how scheduled apps are handled, it said in a recent blog post.

The changes drew a mixed response from users, including "I want to love SmartThings and hope things improve", "I've had my issues, but overall my experience with ST has been fantastic" and "I've lost count of the number of times I've seen the 'we're fixing it this time' post."

With the new hub, processing that was done in SmartThings' cloud can instead be handled locally. Circumventing the cloud will result in a much faster response time, according to SmartThings. Some features on ZigBee, Z-Wave and LAN-connected devices will also continue to work without an Internet connection.

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