Dear Andre,
I'm Gianpiero Morbello, serving as the Head of IOT and Ecosystem at Haier Europe.
It's a pleasure to hear from you. We just received your email, and coincidentally, I was in the process of sending you a mail with a similar suggestion.
I want to emphasize Haier Europe's enthusiasm for supporting initiatives in the open world. Please note that our IOT vision revolves around a three-pillar strategy:
achieving 100% connectivity for our appliances,
opening our IOT infrastructure (we are aligned with Matter and extensively integrating third-party connections through APIs, and looking for any other opportunity it might be interesting),
and the third pillar involves enhancing consumer value through the integration of various appliances and services, as an example we are pretty active in the energy management opening our platform to solution which are coming from energy providers.
Our strategy's cornerstone is the IOT platform and the HON app, introduced on AWS in 2020 with a focus on Privacy and Security by Design principles. We're delighted that our HON connected appliances and solutions have been well-received so the number of connected active consumers is growing day after day, with high level of satisfaction proven by the high rates we receive in the App stores.
Prioritizing the efficiency of HON functions when making AWS calls has been crucial, particularly in light of the notable increase in active users mentioned above. This focus enables us to effectively control costs.
Recently, we've observed a substantial increase in AWS calls attributed to your plugin, prompting the communication you previously received as standard protocol for our company, but as mentioned earlier, we are committed to transparency and keenly interested in collaborating with you not only to optimize your plugin in alignment with our cost control objectives, but also to cooperate in better serving your community.
I propose scheduling a call involving our IOT Technology department to address the issue comprehensively and respond to any questions both parties may have.
Hope to hear back from you soon.
Best regards
Gianpiero Morbello
Head of Brand & IOT
Haier Europe
If only they would have reached out this way the first time instead of a cease and desist, their brand getting dragged through the mud could have been avoided.
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Recently, we’ve observed a substantial increase in AWS calls attributed to your plugin, prompting the communication you previously received as standard protocol for our company, but as mentioned earlier, we are committed to transparency and keenly interested in collaborating with you not only to optimize your plugin in alignment with our cost control objectives,
i get it; their amazon account gets hit hard by some plugin data stream, they trace the source and kill it for monetary reasons. makes total sense. handled terrible, but still, i also completely understand getting some giant bill from amazon and freaking the fuck out.
Sounds the solution is to allow users to not have to connect to the server in the first place and communicate across a local network.
Because they’ve probably killed more money from loss of sales through this stunt than they have from AWS fees.
I highly doubt it. Lemmy isn’t representative of the general population, and the general population has no idea what Home Assistant is.
The general population is very much influenced by the Home Assistant community since the Home Assistant Community is made up of people who are heavily into technology. My parents will run purchases in the tech world past me, as will many of my work colleagues and friends.
The general population are very interested in what we do, even if they do not do it themselves. I mentioned to a tech-phobic friend that I have sensors in my bath that notify me when my bath is run and he takes the piss out of me to my face then talks about how amazing such a thing is behind my back, I know because it happened yesterday. Who do you think he’s gonna talk to when he buys his next expensive appliance?
Don’t talk our influence down, we have an influence even if you can’t see it.
You’re showing your bias as someone who’s knowledgeable about technology. It’s not uncommon for people with an interest in something to assume that knowledge or interest is universal. It’s not.
The average consumer has absolutely no idea how technology works, and they have no interest in knowing. They’ll just buy off the shelf garbage because brand name and nothing else.
I mean, why does HP’s printer division still exist if “everyone” knows they’re a shitty company that will brick your printer if you use 3rd party cartridges? Why do people buy Tuya devices even though they’re essentially Chinese government spying devices?
It’s because “everyone” doesn’t know. And they don’t care.
When you said “I highly doubt it” in response to the first comment, what were you doubting? You comment does not seem to make sense in response to the comment. They said that the open source project has likely cost more money in lost subscription fee’s than in AWS API calls, and you said you doubt it?
Then the person replying to you said “The general population is very much influenced by the Home Assistant community” not that everyone knows about it. But your comment talks strictly about how commonly known things in the tech world are not commonly known in the general population (which I think is pretty commonly known in the tech world as well).
This comment chain does not seem to be talking about the same things.
It was in response to the claim of lost sales being higher than the AWS bill for the integration
300 million AWS api calls costs $1.00. If they lost even 2 sales because people could just use HA instead, they 100% lost more money in subscriptions than the cost of AWS api calls
API calls aren’t the only thing they’d be charged for.
This news wasn’t limited to Lemmy, you know.
It doesn’t really matter. The people who care are going to be a very small percentage of the population.
I mean, people still buy nestle products, and they’re straight up evil.
No one is going to remember this in a week besides the people who weren’t likely to buy their products to begin with.
But you have to remember, that’s true for lost sales but it’s also true for API calls - only a small fraction of their user base is contributing to this high API usage
Right, but I highly doubt the back tracking is because of potential lost sales. It sounds more like the financial people got the legal people involved and they sent a C&D without asking the tech people for a solution. Now the tech guys are doing damage control for the idiots.
I’ve been that tech guy, and I know the general population either has no idea about this occurrence, or they forgot as soon as they scrolled past.
“We don’t know how to rate limit our API or set billing alarms in the AWS console.”
They likely due. However overhead cost is overhead cost
Yup exactly. They just need better responses than “get legal on the phone”
Did you not read the letter you posted? It said a call with the IoT department.
Did you not read the linked issue? The first thing they did, before this letter, was sending a cease and desist
I misread the comment, for sure. I thought they were talking about the call the letter referenced.
