I personally think it's perfectly reasonable for a company to eventually start charging for a service they provide that costs them money to provide. They might bakenin some number of years into the product price, but they can't keep providing the service for free forever.

It seems like something that should be expected if we do want certain services to be provided and maintained. Heck, I also think that offering a subscription is better than the usual alternative, which is that the company just shuts the service down.

However, the way this is done is almost always slimy and shitty and likely is only going to get solved by regulation.

• It's incredibly rare that IOT devices NEED cloud integration. Most of the time it really SHOULD just be local-only, or have a local option.
• If they are going to start charging for something to continue to work, unless there was already an explicit agreement that - and when - this would happen, they need to provide an alternative.
  • Either documentation or open software for how an alternate cloud - including local - could be used instead.
• That info really should be mandatory to be made available beforehand in case the company shuts down.
• The subscription fee needs to be reasonable.
  • Personally, I think $24/year is still far too much, but it's still WAY more reasonable than some I've seen.

Should be a no-brainer.