When you buy a new appliance, you’re making an investment that should last a while, but that may not be true for smart appliances. Manufacturers aren’t obligated to keep your machine up to date, which could turn your investment sour.
Appliances Should Last For Decades
Today, there are still plenty of homes furnished with fridges, stoves, and washing machines from the ’80s. These appliances may not look as good as they used to, and they probably inflate electric bills, but they’re reliable and easily serviceable. Some of these appliances may survive for another ten or twenty years. So it’s fair to assume that a brand new appliance will last for decades, right?
Well, it depends on what you buy. Let’s say that you’ve invested in a smart appliance, like the Samsung Family Hub smart fridge or an LG smart A/C unit. You could’ve bought a cheaper appliance, maybe even a refurbished appliance from the 2000s. But you (justifiably) consider the functions of a smart appliance to be a major selling-point and worthwhile investment.
Well, there’s a chance that your expensive smart appliance will be dumb in less than a decade.
You Replace Your Phones and Tablets Pretty Often
Remember landlines? They tended to last for a while, and you didn’t need to replace them unless you wanted a voicemail receiver or a cordless phone. But cell phones are a different story. According to a Gallup poll, 44% of Americans replace their cellphone every two years, and most cellphones become obsolete after about five or six years.
People don’t complain too much about having to buy a new phone every few years, mostly because they don’t have much choice. Smartphones regularly require new hardware and software to keep up with the times, and old computers tend to slow down. Not to mention, people are becoming increasingly concerned about privacy, and older phones can be more vulnerable to hacking attempts.
When you consider the fact that smart appliances are built like smartphones and tablets, and that they’re meant to work in tandem with smartphones and tablets, it raises a question. Will smart appliances need to be replaced every five or six years? Obviously, your smart fridge isn’t going to stop producing cold air just because its smart features are out of date. But if you dropped thousands of dollars on a smart fridge that can’t stay smart, then that’s a serious problem.
Firmware Updates Are Already Spotty
The first wave of smart appliances came to market less than a decade ago, yet companies are already showing that they’re not interested in putting out firmware updates. And a lot of these appliances are hitting the market with rushed, underdeveloped software, so people are already finding themselves with smart appliances that aren’t so smart.
LG sold their brand of smart appliances (ranges, A/C units, washing machines, and so on) with the promise that they’d work with Google Home, but early adopters in the US claimed that their devices couldn’t connect to Google Home. They also complained that LG wouldn’t offer any support for the problem.
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Source : Your Expensive Smart Appliance May Not Last A Decade
