Microsoft has discontinued the beta of its Hohm home energy monitoring service apparently because customers could not be bothered with it.
Writing in its blog, Microsoft said that the feedback from customers and partners has remained encouraging throughout Microsoft Hohm's beta period. But the market was too slow to adoption the the service. It will continue to support the service until May 31, 2012. Google also had bad luck trying to provide such a service. Last week it announced it was retiring its home energy monitoring service, Google PowerMeter. Like Microsoft, Google cited low adoption rates for the discontinuation.
The Hohm service looks at home energy usage, based on information provided by the user, or by a third-party power monitors. Redmond had a number of ideas to expand the service. It sought to develop a way for utility companies to upload user information directly to the application itself. It also struck a partnership with Ford to have the service alert users about the best times to recharge their electric vehicles.
Users could not be bothered
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Nick Farell
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