Amazon Ring Launches $10 Monthly Professional Alarm Monitoring

While I think ADT has advantages moving upmarket and adding more advanced features, given how determined 'Silicon Valley' is to move into this market, even if ADT executes perfectly upmarket, they are going to get picked off again and again from the growth of Amazon / Ring, making revenue growth difficult and undermining profits.

And while the historical comparison to the MSOs and then DIYs like Simplisafe point to the traditional providers surviving, the Amazon/Ring threat is far tougher, given their (1) much greater reach and (2) much lower pricing. Agree/disagree?

The problem is, of course, that this lowers the public perception of what monitoring "should" cost. It's going to be a lot harder to sell $25/mo monitoring now, especially if a legacy security company has trouble articulating exactly why and how they're better than Ring. 

Man, I'm so glad I'm not in residential security. 

Are you tired of the modular alarm companies? 

Amazon will do for alarms what it has done to independent and corporate booksellers.

This is only a fraction of the comet that is to come.

Matter of fact my book is showing up to its locker today. 

Bye Bye Central Station, love you, bye bye...toodle loo!

The security dealers who get RMR will probably see their payment rates cut, as well, as the traditional central stations cut their rates to compete.  Maybe Amazon will also add a program to compensate those who refer monitoring to them?

Another thought...hosting services provided by Brevo, Feenics, etc, might someday be supplanted by Amazon, et al, as well?  After all, it's only software.

After clicking the link to the 'Protect Plus' plan in the OP, I have a question based on what they show as differences between that plan and their 'Protect Basic' plan.

It appears as if the video offerings in both plans are the same (see bottom chart) - except the 'Basic' plan is per camera ($3), while the 'Plus' plan is unlimited cameras ($10).

While the 'Basic' plan specifically states 60 days storage of video clips, the 'Plus' plan does not specify number of days of storage - but the chart at the bottom has the same check marks in all of the video categories for both plans.

There are other differences but they are just discount/warranty related.

Question:

Can I get monitored alarms if I only have one camera and choose the 'Basic' plan - for only $3/month?

Didn't Amazon raise their prices on Amazon prime last month?

How many times has Netflix raised their prices in the last 5-7 years?

It should be easy for the average security dealer to show bigger companies raise their monthly fees on a more consistent basis.  They may start at $10 a month but will prolly end up at $14.99 someday.

Another concern is that more cities and states are requiring video verification to send police at all or to send within a reasonable time. Is Amazon verifying video? 

I want to know who's doing their monitoring or if they're doing it themselves. $10 is really cheap. My costs are higher than that when you consider monitoring, cellular radio and app fees.

Great, now someone else can look at the alarm cause and see it was just my stupid cat changing positions during the day, and not someone stealing my stuff. Haha

If Amazon has now become a major competitor of ADT, it seems odd that ADT is advertising for them.

ADT - Ring Doorbell

I think for sure that; alarm monitoring stations, alarm dealers, and most manufacturers will need to lower their pricing to compete and for many that will spell doom. But I also believe from my limited experience in alarms that they still require service and what will be gained by the consumer may be eaten up by the tech. 

And then there is the Trump factor, not sure but if Ring is built in China it could be subject to special super duties, if enough industry people lobby him - as I understand Trump is not a great fan of Amazon either. Trump could save this industry and get a special IPVM humanitarian award - what you think John, can you swing that 

From ESX SIW recap:

Peter Giacalone. “While the industry has faced that time and again, it has never faced it from a source as great and powerful as Amazon – that is the most significant challenge to traditional companies.”

Have noted with interest recent radio commercials by Alarm.com, where a frustrated end user calls them and asks for assistance with the DIY alarm system and video doorbell he bought on line and now cannot get them working. 

The response is that alarm.com only works through qualified installers using commercial grade equipment.  It will be interesting to see if Alarm.com gets positive results from this approach.