Having been in the business professionaly for sometime.
I had hopes that Securify put the Almond+ almost in pair with the Vera Edge or something like that (Zippabox or whatever other devices).
Still I think TP-link is able and has showed that it has the potential to do these kind of devices with almost all features right out of the box in the first firmware releases, but lets see what comes.
When I backed the Almond+ for my own testing I was hoping in the future for the device to mature and be an option for the entry level market, for the client that wants something that can be scaled and invest partially as the time and economic situation allows instead of investing all at once. And could be an all in one for an affordable price.
Where I live, almost all ISPs offer now a wifi AC router, with plenty of features like usb connectivity, VOIP support, 3g/lte dongles for connection backup, etc.
Since this is what happens, the ISP router plus some kind of home controller like the Vera, works for most of my clients and with a lot more configuration customization possibilities and features pontential, and almost the same hardware price (since they dont pay the ISP router).
The advantage in this scenery would be the Almond+ touchscreen for home automation, but it is still very basic and small and does not allow to create buttons for scenes for example. That said, the touch is used mainly for the initial quick setup and some light troubleshoot...you still need a tablet to run the almond app and be able to control the scenes.
So unless these things change, and I almost bet this is the target for TP-link device, the almond cannot compete price wise/features wise with this kind of present day situation. Since the final client doesnt want to be limited in the scenes it can configure, and a lot more features and very stable software that devices like the Vera and ZippaBox offer (in my country the Very Edge retails for 138€, a lot less now than the price of the Almond), if you add 100€ for a cheap 7" android tablet its the same price as the Almond+ with a lot more to offer, and the Zigbee at least in europe is almost non existant for professional use at this time and is almost not installed in new houses or clients.
My veredict is that if Securifi abandons the development of Almond+ at this stage in order to develop for Almond 3, it only will put the future customers like me away, because the question is: What assures me that after investing in the Almond 3, Securifi will not do the same it did with the Almond+? Leaving a semi mature device in the market without updates and doomed to be deprecated in almost no time?
As an installer I cannot assure my customers that installing an Almond+ right now will allow them to inovate their home automation continuosly, and will imply that the system will not be able to do anything more than it does right now...its not little, but its not a lot either and there are powerful competitors in the market that do almost everything well and are much more compatible with Zwave devices...
These are my 50cent
