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Philips Hue Announcement
Positive, critical and negative dominant themes were seen in the public responses to Philip Hue's recent announcement on "New Philips Hue smart bulbs don't need a hub — Bluetooth light bulbs make setting up smart lighting easier." These themes are based on interactions gathered from blog posts/social media posts on different platforms.
THEME #1: POSITIVE — CUSTOMERS ARE HAPPY ABOUT THE NEW LAUNCH
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS/BLOG POSTS THAT HAD SOME INTERACTION:
- The Facebook post on “We’ve added Bluetooth capability to our lights!” by Philips Hue received positive feedback and had around 170 comments, 154 likes, and 44 shares from customers/top fans like: “Cool” by Andrew Crabb, “Great to know that the ecosystem is only going to expand and evolve over time, and that support for existing customers utilizing the hub will continue.” by Daniel Salamone.
- The Twitter post on the launch received 29 retweets, 104 likes, with comments like “Sounds great! What I would like is a hub with more capacity. At 44 lights, 8 dimmer switches, and 4 motion sensors, my Hue system sometimes becomes unstable. Adding more lights to it would just kill it and I would like to triple the amount of lights and switches and sensors.” by Mike Rydstrom.
- MacRumors Discussion on “Philips Hue Expected to Launch New Filament Light Bulbs and HomeKit Smart Plug This Fall” saw positive remarks such as, “every competitive addition is welcome.”, “Love Philips’ Hue products”.
THEME #2: CRITICAL — BEHIND ITS COMPETITORS
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS/BLOG POSTS THAT HAD SOME INTERACTION:
- “Philips Hue bulbs now come with Bluetooth, so you don’t need a hub” post by The Verge attracted 26 comments which include critical comparisons like "I doubt Philips will ever make these new bulbs HK certified. I think they’d much prefer to (literally) sell you a bridge instead.", queries and comparisons between other competitor products.
- After the announcement was shared by The Verge on their Twitter handle, it gained some critical feedback stating, “This took way too long.” by Nikola Robotics, “It doesn’t have Apple HomeKit support? Then It’s simple garbage…” by PanSheff. The post though merely stated the announcement, the customer interaction was critical, the post saw 19 retweets and 89 likes.
- The article by 9to5mac on “Philips Hue launches its first Bluetooth smart lights, no bridge required” saw 25 comments and most are critical and shows their preference for Zigbee over Philips Hue due to pricing, reliability, experience, support, and speed.
- Gizmodo article also has some critical comments stating, “For me, the whole point of having a 'smart' bulb is that it works automatically. Really don’t understand why these could be called smart, if the only difference is that instead of using a physical switch on the wall, now I have to get my phone from my pocket and start the app to do so. All in the name of being modern.”
- As per Android Police, the announcement saw a comparison with the existing Hub, and many customers were vocal about their concerns, preferences, and queries related to the product like, “I think I prefer with a hub. BT would have been nice if they were creating a BT mesh and then communicate with either the phone directly or any compatible hub.” by Mayoo.
- Techspot post on the new launch saw 5 comments, 42 interactions, mostly related to higher energy consumption.
- According to The Star, 25 customers had neutral responses.
THEME #3: NEGATIVE — CHEAPER ALTERNATIVES AVAILABLE
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS/BLOG POSTS THAT HAD SOME INTERACTION:
- A blog by Android Authority cited the announcement and though did not see much interaction and received only 4 comments but were negative in nature, like “Big deal, there are plenty of WiFi-enabled options which don't require proprietary hardware to prop them up.” by AUMarshall; “...those prices are ridiculous...just get any bluetooth out there...hundreds to choose from and cheaper and work exactly the same” by Kensal.
- According to Engadget article on “New Philips Hue smart bulbs don't need a hub”, the customer feedback was negative regarding the product and addressed them as “useless”, “too finicky”, and/or shows a preference for Lifx among others. The article saw 38 comments and 154 shares.
- An article by SlashGear received some negative comments for the brand and preference for other brands over Phillips Hue.
- According to The Star, 20 customers were either anxious (4), worried (4), awful (4), upset (4), or sad (4) about the new feature of the Philips Hue smart bulb.
RESEARCH STRATEGY:
We started our search by looking through blog posts/social media posts in platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Engadget, Android Police, Techspot, TechRadar, Android Central among others. The "theme" was decided based on the tone of the comments/interactions by the customers/reviewers and based on the definition present in articles from Research Gate and Small Business on positive, critical, and negative feedback. At least 3 different social media posts/blog posts have been identified to support the theme through interactions, comments, likes and/or shares. These "themes" are considered "dominant" due to their repetitions in 2 or more posts with interactions, comments, likes and/or shares.