These are well-designed and relatively intuitive remote control switch and motion detector. Once you get them set up they are very useful and versatile enough to perform all sorts of remote or automatic functions in your house. However, they do have some design flaws and are pretty expensive.

PROS

* Ease of use. Once you’ve had them properly setup, the WeMo switch and motion detector work very well. They are
* Reliability. I’ve used a lot of networked peripherals and stand-alone electronic devices before (printers, security cameras), and most of them come with some connectivity issues. So far I’ve been very pleased with WeMo – it resides on your home network, and it’s easily accessible remotely, either via Internet or cellular networks. Granted, I haven’t been using it for too long, but my experiences thus far are very positive.
* Build. These sensors look and seem solid, and they can easily fit any environment – from your bedroom to the garage or a workshop.
* Convenient. You don’t need to completely redo your walls and wiring in order to get a very sophisticated level of home automation.
* Remote accessibility. As long as you have an iOS device and an Internet connection (weather cellular or WiFi), you will be able to control and program all of you sensors and switches.
* Versatile. The range of behaviors and responses that you can automate is truly remarkable for a consumer level device. You may not be able to do some things that a high-end professional home automation product is capable of, but for most regular everyday uses this switch and sensor can be more than adequate.

CONS

* Relatively obscure instruction manual. The designers of this system were obviously hoping to create something that you could just plug into your wall and use immediately, so they only provided a very minimalist set of instructions. However, even though I consider myself to be fairly IT savvy, I had some trouble properly configuring the motion sensor in particular, and even for that I needed to search online for the more detailed instructions.
* Very large. The wall plugins are as large as a two-outlet wall plug itself. You have to be strategic about how you place them, and having one of these on a power strip is all but out of the question.
* Control restricted to iOS devices. Yes, there are way too many OSs out there, and restricting your product to the one that is perhaps the smoothest and cleanest may make some marketing sense, but I for one would like to be able to access my switches and sensors from any device that I am using – computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. Maybe even my Kindle. That would be really cool.
* Expensive. Getting one or two of these can instantly turn your home into a smart, automated dwelling. However, at the price of $100+ for each one of these units the expenses quickly mount and using these sensors for all but the smallest tasks would be prohibitively expensive for people on moderate budgets, and if you do have the money to burn then getting a more professional integrated system would be the more logical choice. I think that these switches need to come down substantially in price before they can make any impact on the average consumer.

So to conclude, if you are looking for a quick and relatively easy way of automating a few of your domestic appliances or rooms, then this is one of the best such systems that I’ve seen. However, it is costly and I would not recommend using these switches and motion detectors for full-home automation.