After just a few months on the market, Sage by Hughes, a home security product from EchoStar, has been discontinued.
The decision comes as the Dish Network spinoff announced the departure of its president Mark Jackson, and when the head honcho leaves, apparently, so too do some of the product lines. The removal of Sage by Hughes is apparently only an “initial cut,” which suggests that EchoStar may get rid of some other products too as it focuses on “areas that [it is] confident will produce positive bottom line impact.”
We first told you about Sage back in March when it was unveiled as a smart-home monitoring system that allowed users to call authorities with the touch of a button, no matter where they were. The Sage hub connected to TV sets, and gave users the opportunity to control multiple devices from a big screen.
“Although the product had a number of groundbreaking features, a dramatic change in the competitive landscape heavily impacted our chance of this product [to achieve] a significant positive long-term results for EchoStar,” said Mike Dugan, EchoStar’s CEO, in reference to the decision to discontinue the product.
“I still think the product has potential. It has some great features and so on but for EchoStar we just weren’t ready to proceed with that at this time,” he added. “ETC will continue to develop consumer-facing products and we will take some hard lessons learned from our Sage efforts.”
Customers received an email on Thursday that noted, “Sage will be shut down at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, September 30th. This means that the mobile apps on your smartphone, as well as controlling the system through the TV interface, will cease to function — including access to your cloud-stored videos and the MyLocal911 feature. In addition, if you have Premium Service, you will no longer be charged for it after September 1st.”
EchoStar will, however, be giving a refund for the Sage system equipment and any services they may have purchased. “You do not need to return your equipment to receive this refund,” the email said. “We will be refunding the credit card you have on file with your account and provide you with a closing invoice within 30 days of this notice. Your continued use of any of the Sage products will no longer be covered by any warranty previously offered.”
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