If you sell a device that relies on an external service to function, then you are no longer in the hardware business, you are in the services business, and should sell the <i>service</i> as such.<p>Likewise, if you are a consumer and buying a physical device that needs an upstream service, you dont really own, or really even need to own the device. What you really want is the value the device brings, without any of the headaches that go along with devices becoming obsolete.<p>Logitech is so used to selling hardware products that they didn't realize that they became a service provider as soon as their Harmony Link required connectivity. They should not be marketing or selling <i>devices</i>, despite their history of being a physical product vendor.
If users had purchased a "Harmony Link" service agreement, and Logitech was responsible for keeping their users devices up to date and functioning with their service, then nobody would complain.<p>Cable companies figured this out a <i>long</i> time ago. When was the last time anyone had to care about cable modem or set top boxes being deprecated? The cable companies have always sold the <i>service</i>, and the hardware was either rentable, or, sometimes, provided by the consumer, but always with the understanding that the hardware wasnt why people bought cable.<p>I've avoided any of these connected home hardware specifically because the manufacturers try and push ownership to the consumers. As soon as its the service providers responsibility to ensure the devices are secure and work with their service, I'll sign right up.