Hacker News Reader

Comment by Killah911 | Hacker News Reader

This may sound like a very shallow comment, but what happens to the Wink stuff? I just bought one of the GE Wink light kits & the Wink hub is a "Quirky" product. It's already been a little buggy, but I figured it'd improve over time. Does GE pick up development/support work going forward?

View on HN

Wink Inc is up for sale separately from the rest of the Quirky business. There are already offers on the table, and their press releases thus far have said they don't anticipate any interruption to that part of the business -- the team's still in place, maintaining the services and working on improvements. There are so many "Works with Wink" products on the shelves -- not just GE, but Cree, Leviton, Lutron, Chamberlain, etc -- that I'm sure that brand will land a home with a future.

I'd be surprised if Google, Apple, or Microsoft didn't pick Wink up.

Google picked up Revolv via Nest[0], so I'd be surprised if they were bidding. Apple seems like a long shot to me, given their existing projects with TV and Homekit and the fact that they don't seem interested in making home automation devices. Microsoft could be interesting--they seem to lack substance in this space.

[0] http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/24/7061557/nest-acquires-rev...

They'll be sold to someone (stalking horse bidder is Flextronics) within 60 days. See http://blog.wink.com/wink-blog/2015/9/22/wink-corporate-upda...

Worst case the quirky lights work with the Phillips Hue bridge. And the Phillips Lux bulbs are similar in price to the quirky bulbs.

Wink business is being sold. See my comment above.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com