OnTech Jumps Into 20 More Markets, Adds Lighting, Pushes TV Installs
Dish’s OnTech smart home service expanded into 20 markets, bringing to 31 the total number of metro areas offering the device and installation service that launched in June (see 1906170060), General Manager Jeremy McCarty told us Tuesday. New markets are Baltimore; Beaumont, Texas; Charlotte; Chicago; Cleveland; Corpus Christi; Detroit; Jacksonville; Lansing, Michigan; Las Vegas; Macon, Georgia; Miami; Minneapolis; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; Portland, Oregon; Richmond; San Diego; Tucson and Palm Beach, Florida.
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OnTech was “pleasantly surprised” with feedback from the first round of customers in the two months since it launched in 11 cities, McCarty said. It’s now in 27 states and “will be in your area soon,” said the website. The Dish spinoff is marketing the service through digital and paid search and working with partners on the way to serve “the collective customer,” McCarty said, citing hardware organizations for smart home platforms.
Since June, OnTech added the C by GE smart lighting line, McCarty said, to join smart device hardware partners including Ring, Google, Wemo and Linksys, streaming music player AirTV and audio products from Polk and Klipsch.
OnTech continues to nibble around TV, including emailing reporters about its TV mounting service as a fall back-to-football promotion. The email noted OnTech “mounts TVs, installs sound bars and surround sound, or even an over-the-air digital antenna if you’ve cut the cord.”
The company hasn’t partnered with a TV maker, though, McCarty said, saying it will likely announce a TV line late this year or early 2020. Choices will be based on “what brand makes the most sense” according to feature sets customers want and a price range that “hits mass appeal.” TVs using OnTech will have to be smart home-centric, allowing users to interact with devices, share content and “be an extension of the smart home,” he said: “Not every TV is the same.”
On how the company is selling the concept of a TV installation without the TV, McCarty said, “You can buy your TV from lots of different places,” including online, wholesale clubs and smaller dealers that don’t have installation services. Some of OnTech's partners -- local and regional CE dealers -- want to extend their reach beyond their footprint, he said, and that includes being able to “dropship products to customers all over the country, but I don’t have a service arm to be able to do that.”
OnTech offers a brand name go along with installation that could give customers peace of mind that a reputable business is behind the work, said McCarty. “We’ll offer to do service regardless of where you bought the TV,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for nearly a decade,” he said of Dish installations, and plugging J.D. Power accolades. TV installation prices start at $99 for smaller TVs; a basic installation runs $199 for wall-mounting, he said. MountWerks is one of its mount partners.
The promo email also suggested a smart lock and doorbell combo with a back-to-school tie-in: “Parents are thinking about their kids heading back to school, and coming and going from the house when parents may not be around.” A smart lock and doorbell bundle is $129 off to $380, McCarty said.
On whether OnTech, which sells Amazon’s Ring products, plans to partner with Amazon on its Key in-home delivery service, McCarty said, “I’m probably not ready to comment about that yet.” Device that do a good job of protecting homeowners from porch piracy are on the market, he said, noting the delivery season for holiday gift orders is coming. “Google and Ring have done a really nice job of building platforms that allow people to feel comfortable in their home and getting those deliveries made.”