Best Buy's ConnectedLife One-Ups Geek Squad

Retail writes "Best Buy is going to sell a packaged solution of Media Center plus home automation. Literally, it's a package — a box. A customer walks into a Best Buy store, delights in the demo, buys the package, and waits for its arrival in a big box about four-foot square. The package costs $15,000. For that you get a Media Center PC, Lifeware automation software from Exceptional Innovation, an Xbox 360, IP surveillance cameras, automated light switches, a thermostat and installation. It's a complicated business model, called ConnectedLife.Home, and it's bound to pit the new group against other Best Buy factions like Geek Squad."

Re:services

[cayenne8]

Crap...a BSOD in the dead of winter could be a bitch!!!!!

Survey SAYS...

[pla]

Before you mod this "redundant", at the time of this posting, no one else has actually done the math, just guessed...


For that you get a Media Center PC
Averages around $900 [prostores.com], but they use the HP z560 [circuitcity.com] at $1800...

Lifeware automation software from Exceptional Innovation
This one took some work. The closest I could get to a price, $5000 [cepro.com], includes hardware. But it puts us at an upper limit, at least.

an Xbox 360
The easiest to find, at $400 [amazon.com]

IP surveillance cameras
They use a pair of Panasonics (not sure of the model number), around $380 [newegg.com] each.

automated light switches
FTA: "five dimmers, five switches, two keypads". Home Depot [homedepot.com], $80.

a thermostat
Again, no model number given, but the standard model [asihome.com] goes for $270

and installation.
Not really - They want you to have the "hard" parts done yourself, by a privately contracted licensed electrician.



The package costs $15,000.

Total so far, $8310 (not counting your own electrician).

So, not counting needing to hire your own electrician, that puts the cost of their installation at roughly ... $6690.



I've made some pretty damned good wages doing contract work, but over $6k for less than a day's work? Wow, talk about a dream job...

Anyone that wants this system - Hunt me down for contact info. I'll do it for a third less (you pay airfair outside the continental US, and though I know how to work safely with home AC systems , you'll probably still need a licensed electrician to do this legally in most places).

Re:Two dimensional box?

[sharkey]

Yes, this is a Slashvertisement. The "submitter's comments" are just a copy and paste of a CE Pro poster named Julie Jacobson, who gets chided for her poor math skills there as well.

Re:$15k

[OmnipotentEntity]

Before any crazy mod decides to mod the parents as Offtopic, Barry and Buzz are some of internal names the different Best Buy Customer Segments.

Everyone who works there has to remember them.

• Barry's a rich fucker, who can be a tightwad sometimes (most of the time.)
• Buzz the guy who goes to Best Buy to shop for a high end computer (*rolleyes*)
• They also have Ray, who represents the people who can't afford all of this shit, so they give them credit cards.
• And finally, they have the Old people's segment, who's name escapes me at the moment.

*Cue The More You Know*