The feature removal is nuanced thing worthy of more discussion.
If Bosch had sold the dishwasher with a rinse button, and then disabled it via a firmware patch, I would be pissed as well.
If Bosch are advertising a cloud only featured without making it clear its cloud only, also pissed.
But Bosch shipping a dishwasher without a rinse button, that is less clear. Not all offline dishwashers have a rinse (I had an IKEA without a rinse cycle), so whether it is a standard feature or not is open for debate. It could be as simple as Bosch deciding to prioritise a difference cycle button instead?
Features being removed from products is unfortunately nothing new, in all industries there are numerous examples, the only difference here is that with their app, Bosch can add it back in.
Remote start is the main reason for having it networked. They also advertise it with home assistant/homekit/googlehome/alexa connectivity, which isnt for everyone, but for some, that is a sellable feature. So its not necessarily true that the app directly makes money, it could simply be a feature that helps sell more machines.
Bosch are EU based, so any collected data should be protected by GDPR, although Im not EU, so they could be screwing me if they want. (I am also not a gdpr lawyer, so correct me if i am wrong here). I’d trust Bosch a lot more than a Chinese/US manufacturer, but I isolate it out of an abundance of paranoia.
If Bosch had sold the dishwasher with a rinse button, and then disabled it via a firmware patch, I would be pissed as well.
When Bosch disables old Home Connect users in 15 years, that’s exactly what will happen.
so they could be screwing me if they want.
They are screwing you. There was no reason for them to spend development money and servers that require constant money for maintenance to disable features on your dishwasher if there wasn’t profit.
The feature removal is nuanced thing worthy of more discussion. If Bosch had sold the dishwasher with a rinse button, and then disabled it via a firmware patch, I would be pissed as well. If Bosch are advertising a cloud only featured without making it clear its cloud only, also pissed. But Bosch shipping a dishwasher without a rinse button, that is less clear. Not all offline dishwashers have a rinse (I had an IKEA without a rinse cycle), so whether it is a standard feature or not is open for debate. It could be as simple as Bosch deciding to prioritise a difference cycle button instead? Features being removed from products is unfortunately nothing new, in all industries there are numerous examples, the only difference here is that with their app, Bosch can add it back in.
Remote start is the main reason for having it networked. They also advertise it with home assistant/homekit/googlehome/alexa connectivity, which isnt for everyone, but for some, that is a sellable feature. So its not necessarily true that the app directly makes money, it could simply be a feature that helps sell more machines.
Bosch are EU based, so any collected data should be protected by GDPR, although Im not EU, so they could be screwing me if they want. (I am also not a gdpr lawyer, so correct me if i am wrong here). I’d trust Bosch a lot more than a Chinese/US manufacturer, but I isolate it out of an abundance of paranoia.
When Bosch disables old Home Connect users in 15 years, that’s exactly what will happen.
They are screwing you. There was no reason for them to spend development money and servers that require constant money for maintenance to disable features on your dishwasher if there wasn’t profit.