I got a promotion email today from Obi advertising a special price for Obi200 and Obi202 on Sept 27. But it said that the Obi100 and Obi110 have reached the end of their lives. Is that true? So we are all forced to buy another device at this time? This is really unpleasant news and comes as quite a shock.
That is some pretty absurd logic. Very few consumer electronic products continue to be manufactured forever. The OBi 1x0 products are discontinued, but they will continue to work, as-is. Obihai isn't sending some "kill switch" command to them. Nobody is forcing you to do anything. The only possible thing that might happen in the future, is if Google, for example, changes their service such that the OBi 1x0 devices can no longer authenticate. No company is obligated to continue providing firmware updates for obsolete products.
When Ford discontinues selling some car model, they don't make all of those cars explode and force you to buy a new one, and you can keep driving your old Ford until you can no longer get it repaired.
The exact wording in the announcement was:
For those who are using the OBi100 or OBi110 (both have reached its End of Life) and wish to upgrade your device, this is also a great time to get the OBi200 or OBi202 as your replacement device.
In other words, "We've stopped making the Ford Fairlane. We're having a sale on Ford Focus next week. Now would be a great time to get a Focus as your replacement car."
The blog explains in detail, what Obihai announced.
