Looks very interesting in concept, as I see a lot of folks using dropcams for similar functions, this could be a clever upgrade -- though Amazon reviews are bad, that's probably going to keep me away.
Web site feedback -- there's a bit of a trend in startup/product websites to not share enough detail. Here's a few questions I had, since I see company folks replying, I'll just share here.
On the website, I'd consider addressing do doorbell notifications happen without the application open (i.e. can it send text messages?), I assume video is uploaded into s3, how can video be browsed and how is it retained, and how do replacement batteries work? What is the average cloud recording cost for a year? Is there a notification the battery needs tobe replaced?. I'd also be interested in what happens if ring goes out of business or if it depends on any cloud services - does the device still work, etc. With cars frequently driving in front of the camera, do those get recorded as new events (or worse, send events, or still worse, text alerts?), or can the "zone" be configured in the camera? Also, how is the device mounted? What does it do in the event WiFi blinks out (will it reconnect)? Can it do WPA?
The design is really odd. Just as if they didn't bother at all to step back and check whether it looks good in the context. It doesn't appear to be compatible with any architectural style whatsoever. It won't work for classic houses, it won't work for the modern ones too. It may perhaps work for some futuristic builds similar to that Japanese capsule hotel, but otherwise it's just some randomly styled gadget that wants to stand out on its own.
Appreciate your opinion (really do). The design was driven not just by what we wanted it to look like but also the physical constraints around some of the features the product has. The main drivers:
1. Battery that lasts for one year (5,250mah)
2. Infrared night vision with a IR cut filter
3. Advanced, programmable motion detection that can detect people up to 30 feet out at 180 degrees from the device.
4. Powerful WiFi antenna
Each one of these drives a certain amount of the design. I say this not as a excuse but just to give some background that the design did have some physical drivers behind it.
I am very happy with how the device looks and also the feedback from the customers.
I fully understand that this is your baby, but to me, as someone with a strong liking for good industrial design, the product looks like it wasn't pushed all the way through. This is, basically, not a Nest- or Lacie-level design. It lacks polish. This is Home Depot, it merely doesn't look ugly.
To be concrete with the nitpicks [1] -
* Multiple grooves in the top/black part that add nothing to the design and only fracture the overall look. They would've been a bit less intrusive if the camera lens had a bit of vertical padding around it, but that too is missing. The whole top part looks like something that was driven entirely by the engineering constraints. It just completely neglects rudimentary visual balance.
* Rounded vertical edges. Very large radius has no chance of stylistically matching anything on or near a typical door. It would've been less of an issue if the horizontal edges too were rounded, but they aren't, so the design is not even self-consistent. You have an exaggerated smoothness on the sides and blade-sharp edges at the top and bottom.
* Rounded edges wrap behind the device. This implicitly detaches the gadget from the surface it sits on and makes it stick out that much more. This is probably my biggest gripe with how the whole thing looks when mounted.
* Thin black ledge at the bottom that doesn't stretch the full width. It's also missing on other images, meaning probably that some of them are renderings.
* The logo. How would you like to have a branded door or even a door handle? Same here. If you feel like doing some cross-promotion, put the logo on the top side of the device. Those who are interested in learning what the device is will find it.
What if it's intended to indicate status? It's a $200 replacement for a sticky note on your door... Maybe it should be conspicuous, with a distinct style and a prominent logo. Like, you're not knocking on just anyone's door, your knocking on the door of someone with a Ring doorbell on their house and a Tesla charging port on the garage, etc. Maybe it's meant to appeal to that sort of person.
I live in a neighborhood where Teslas, BMW 7-Series, etc. are far more common than Hondas. Lots of money, and very status-conscious. And I can't imagine seeing this on any of the houses on my street. If you are the kind of person who hires an interior designer to design every room of your house, and a high end landscaping service to keep the yard looking nice, you're going to care about an incongruous doorbell too.
The same company that made Ring came out with this first. It was crowdfunded and the people that stuck out the very long wait were very underwhelmed I hear. The doorbot facebook page was a lot of very angry people. I guess they abandoned the doorbot brand and moved to 'Ring' when they felt they had ironed out the kinks? Hope to try this out.
Did not abandon. Still support it. Was a Gen 1 product for sure. Ring is our V2 and so far has been very well received, great reviews and very happy customers.
We did do a $99 upgrade for everyone that had bought a Doorbot .
I've read a lot of the reviews on the DoorBot Amazon page, and frankly, I would think twice about buying Ring. Not because of the many problems with the software/hardware that DoorBot suffered, but the lack of response from your customer service reps.
Not sure if you personally read them, but customer service unresponsiveness is a common theme in those 1-2 star reviews.
Have you done anything to address this problem? DoorBot was your first gen product; you HAD to expect problems and made sure people were being responded to.
I never got a $99 upgrade offer - paid full price after never being able to get my doorbot working properly (802.11b only? Really??).
Ring has been a little better, but still get a black screen far more often than I'd like, and 3-5s latency on audio for a local wifi device is rather frustrating.
Ring is on my list for later this year; I look forward to trying it. I was going to go for Doorbot but the bad reviews had put me off. I don't see the same reviews for Ring. Best of luck :)
I had the original doorbot. It never really worked. They made all these promises about features coming up and never delivered. The mobile apps were a disaster and never updated.
I finally returned it after trying it for a year which was the only really good experience with the company. Letting me return the product after a year.
I felt like it was a bait and switch. They got all these people to crowdfund the 1st product, delivered something that was mediocre at best and never iterated on it.
Then they changed the name and are selling a similar product.
Feels a little shady to me.
I would be really weary of backing them at this point.
They crowdfunded $250,000 in 2014 when they were named Doorbot and delivered a fairly underwhelming product prior. No idea how the current product stacks up. I wonder how much of that money went towards the domain instead of engineering, software, QA, etc.
This is one of the many reasons I'm wary of kickstarter-like activities. I think my money is going to go to delivering a product, but it may just end up used for marketing/branding I don't agree with, which may or may not detract from the actual product because $slick_marketing_firm knows make a geeky firm do their bidding. "Of course you need our gold star domain and SEO package!"
Frankly, it seems excessive. I'm pretty much the target demographic and am salivating at replacing my existing video doorbell with this (non-wifi). If it was still named Doorbot I would be just as excited. If anything, I'm wary of generic domains as they often seem associated with shady or uninteresting companies.
The domain was definitely not cheap. So far I think it was the right decision to buy it and I believe we have seen enough benefit from it to make it worthwhile. However we will not know if it was really worth it for at least another year or two.
We had already been doing a lot of direct business before we changed the name to Ring (we were formally Doorbot).
I basically made the assumption that if Ring.com increased our direct sales by X%, how many years would it pay back. It turned out that even at a very high price for the domain it did not have to increase sales by a lot (single digit) in order to pay itself off over just a few years.
We launched Ring.com in October and so far it appears that the benefits are happening however it will never be something that we can 100% be sure of.
I am actually not a big fan of domains anymore but I think a extremely marquee one like Ring.com was worth stretching the budget for.
Not quite the same thing but everyone should invest in one of those $200-$300 720p security systems with 4 cameras and recorder.
You won't believe the nonsense that goes on around your home when you aren't around. Trespassing, package delivery theft, lost/stray animals, etc. and of course burglary.
I'm pretty sure you would be aware of package delivery theft and burglary without a $300 security system. And the other two categories are uninteresting at least.
I'd turn that around: if you live somewhere where there's a high chance of theft and burglary, invest in a security system.
But it is weird to advice peple to buy a system just to find out if their house was broken into.
To jsiminoff: do you guys still have the lockitron integration that you had planned for Doorbot? I can see that there's quite a few alternatives now like those by Schlage - any plans to offer the unified UI that you had planned or are you keeping things more split up this time around?
Any chance to jailbreak the Ring to be used with my IP video surveillance system? I have had the Ring for a couple of weeks now and it works as advertised but I was very disappointed to find that I can't record or even view the video on my home network.
Seems like an obvious addition to build the doorbell/video camera into the existing smart locking systems. So for example you could allow the delivery guy to leave your parcel inside your home. Or let a friend in when you're away.
Web site feedback -- there's a bit of a trend in startup/product websites to not share enough detail. Here's a few questions I had, since I see company folks replying, I'll just share here.
On the website, I'd consider addressing do doorbell notifications happen without the application open (i.e. can it send text messages?), I assume video is uploaded into s3, how can video be browsed and how is it retained, and how do replacement batteries work? What is the average cloud recording cost for a year? Is there a notification the battery needs tobe replaced?. I'd also be interested in what happens if ring goes out of business or if it depends on any cloud services - does the device still work, etc. With cars frequently driving in front of the camera, do those get recorded as new events (or worse, send events, or still worse, text alerts?), or can the "zone" be configured in the camera? Also, how is the device mounted? What does it do in the event WiFi blinks out (will it reconnect)? Can it do WPA?
EDIT: see some install instructions here: https://ring.com/installation