GE’s C by GE smart LED light bulbs are outfitted with Bluetooth radios, as opposed to ZigBee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, or something else that would require a hub (or a router) to control them. The upside of that design choice is that you don’t need to buy anything beyond the bulbs. The downside is that you can only control them locally. You can’t turn your lights on or off from afar, you can’t program them to turn on and off according to a schedule, and you can’t integrate them—as smart bulbs, at least—into a broader connected-home system.
GE recognizes those limitations will be showstoppers for some, so the company’s roadmap includes adding features to the bulbs down the road, including compatibility with the Wink hub (GE was an early investor in Wink, and the company sells other LED bulbs that work with it).
