Increase basic plan from 5 to 7 wireless cameras

[nicholshornlake]

I have 5 arlo wireless cameras, but need to buy 2 more to cover all my outside area. Would be nice to up the basic plan from 5 to 7 wireless cameras without paying a monthly fee. This is a good amount of money just in cameras. Thanks

[cruicky]

I agree. If you are paying for the camera then you should be able to use it at least on the basic plan. Its netgear's descision to force users to use their cloud storage and so they should honor the user's investment at least in a basic capacity.

[MichaelHL]

Can there be a plan to use more than 5 cameras without going to Premier package. We have 5 cameras for security but do not need the 30 days of storage and more memory. We have a toddler and another baby on the way and want to add the new Arlo Baby to use as monitors. We cannot do this though without upgrading plans. Storage is not needed for the baby monitor. We want to keep it simple all on one app. Thanks.

[AncientGeek]

There is a work-around.  Set up a second account with another email address (perhaps your wife's).  Set up cameras 6-10 on that account and invite your primary email account to view and operate the cameras.  You and your wife would effectively both see up to 10 cameras on the no-charge plan.

[MichaelHL]

Thanks, we thought about this. Was unsure of if it would work. Will another cam to try.

[AncientGeekVT]

I just did this exact same thing when adding cameras at my father-in-law's home.  We were at our max on our paid plan, so I created an account for my wife, added the cameras at his house and invited myself and a few other relatives to access the cameras.  Marvelously, the added cameras just show up at the bottom of the devices page.  This is a really excellent feature that I hope Netgear keeps forever.  It adds really nice utility and flexibility.

[The_PM]

So there's something I don't understand. I am a Product Manager so I analyze these things. There's a 5 camera limit for the free plan. Clearly Arlo is not in a "sell at a loss make money on subscription" model since they are offering 5 cameras for the free plan and I suspect most of the users are on that plan.

Now, Arlo is growing its ecosystem building these great new cameras, like Q, Pro and now the Baby Cam (which are by no means cheap). The problem that I am bringing up is that I believe the 5 camera limit artificially stops some people from buying new cameras and implicitly limit Arlo's profits from selling that hardware.

User persona that I am talking about: The Arlo power user who bought 5 cameras already (clearly an Arlo fan) but did so without interest in getting the paid subscription. What Arlo is basically saying to this user is: Hey user, look at this great new cameras we made. They are awesome and they cost $200+. But especially for you, since you're a power user who loves his Arlo cameras, you can get this only if you pay a monthly subscription. This special offer is just for you though, the other users don't need to pay for a subscription.

Now, I understand that Arlo is betting that this limit will increase the conversion rate and more users will upgrade to the paid plan only so that they can add more cameras. Especially, I am thinking business users here. I am just challenging this assumption. Of course Arlo has the right data and instrumentation and I may very well be wrong - maybe people ARE upgrading as soon as they hit their 5 camera limit. But in a world where people don't want a subscription, the Arlo ecosystem is doomed to see diminishing returns with each new added camera as people will max out on their limit.

What I am saying is that the subscription, by itself, as a service / product, needs to be able to add the right value to the buying user. Otherwise it will just limit the potential profits made on hardware. You clearly have great PMs on the products - I love the camera and I love the way the use cases are clearly marked and explained. Not so well on the subscription, though. Add more features to the subscription, make me WANT to buy it because I need it, not because I can't buy that new baby camera.

Make the subscription worth it for people with multiple properties (like a vacation home) so that only with subscription you can have tiered alerts / monitoring plans for groups of cameras or base stations. Now with the new Pro and Baby, there are different use cases out here and not all of them can be now mixed and matched when it comes to alerts and monitoring plans.

Thx

The_PM

[kmbrown]

I understand there's a 5 cam limit for free accounts, but why add the extra punishment of limiting a BROWSER to 5 cams?

I have a base and 5 cams in Florida.  I have a base and 3 cams in Massachusetts.  To view the cams with free accounts I have to keep the locations on separate accounts because viewing 8 cams at a time is not possible on free accounts - even though viewing the same cams on two separate accounts IS possible on two accounts.

If the objective is to offer free access for 1 - 5 cam systems, fine.  I have two systems so that's two free accounts.  If I want the convenience of viewing both my systems at one time, I need to pay $120/year, which is quite a jump from zero.

I feel like I'm being punished for buying more Arlo cams!

[TomMac]

Life is not free most of the time...

You do get more, like the time of storage of videos too and unlimted tech support... for $10 or less per month.

[JasH]

You should allow the addition of 5 external cameras (as now) plus at least a couple of indoor Arlo Q cameras to the 7 day free Cloud service. It is fair enough to charge for 30 day storage or continuous recording, but this policy is losing you sales.

There is a workaround to use multiple accounts, and allow access to the cameras.  So this does of course point to the 5 camera policy as being utterly pointless, and off-putting to customers whilst achieving nothing whatsoever positive for Netgear.

[mv95033]

Agreed, at $100+ per camera there is a good business case to allow users to spend more on HW :). Forcing most valuable customers who spend more on cameras to go through loopholes to get them to work is not good Customer Sat policy...and having multiple accounts messes up the ability to use third party triggers such as IFTTT.