Why Nest’s Revolv hubs won’t be the last IoT devices knocked offline

Owners of the Revolv connected-home hub are about to experience what may become a growing hazard of the Internet of Things: abandoned Things.

The hubs they use to control devices around their homes through a smartphone app will stop working on May 15. It seems that Nest, the division of Alphabet that acquired Revolv in 2014, thinks it has a better way to do this. So the service connected to Revolv hubs will end and the devices, which sold for a list price of US$299, will be deactivated.

"As of May 15, 2016, Revolv service will no longer be available. The Revolv app won’t open and the hub won’t work," the company said on its site. All Revolv data will be deleted.

Devices that rely on cloud-based software are inherently vulnerable to getting left behind if that software gets shut down, but IoT raises the stakes. Rather than just a lone gadget that's not useful anymore, a decommissioned IoT device is likely to become a missing link in a larger system.