"Emerging Technologies"
by Dave RyeRecently SmartLabs/SmartHome developed their own Home Automation technology that they call INSTEON. They think it's "better" than X10, yet they still sell X10 products, and in fact made INSTEON compatible with X10. (An INSTEON controller can control INSTEON modules and X10 modules). I guess they know what they'll sell more of, given that they sell an INSTEON lamp module for $29.99 and an X10 lamp module for $11.99. (They actually sell an X10 lamp module for a Dollar less than X10's suggested retail price).
Some other "emerging technologies" (e.g., Z-Wave, or Zigbee) are "wireless" i.e., Radio Frequency (RF). X10 sells millions of RF controllers and remotes. But X10 has the best of both worlds. X10 transmits RF from a variety of wireless remotes to a plug-in transceiver (TM751, $12.99). The transceiver then puts the signal onto the AC wiring, to be picked up by a Lamp Module LM465, Appliance Module AM486, or wired-in Wall Switch Module WS467, etc. (all $12.99 each). This generally overcomes any limitation that Powerline Carrier (PLC) only, or Radio Frequency (RF) only systems might have.
Funnily enough, Z-Wave is also X10 compatible, offering a "bridge" that lets a Z-Wave controller control an X10 Module. They all "need" X10 because INSTEON have less than a dozen products. Z-Wave, Zigbee even less. X10 has hundreds of individual products, and an installed base of over 100 million units.
All this academic talk about emerging technologies is actually quite humorous. It doesn't matter whether it's Z-Wave, Zigbee, INSTEON, or whatever. They are all unproven technologies. All these emerging technologies tout how they are "better than X10." By "better" they mean faster transmission, or more codes, or no code wheels to set, or two-way. They all say "X10 has technical problems." These new technologies haven't been around long enough to even know what problems they have. They won't be better than X10, they'll just be different.
What no one who writes about them seems to know that X10 has been around for 28 years - actually shipping products for 28 years! X10 founded the Home Automation Industry, shipping its first products to RadioShack in 1978. X10 is the DeFacto standard for PLC protocol. ALL the "Big Name" Home Automation systems out there were developed and manufactured by X10, i.e., the systems marketed by RadioShack, IBM, GE, Stanley, RCA, Black & Decker, Leviton, Honeywell, and more are "X10 systems."
X10 is in more than 5 million homes and has shipped more that 100 million products, in North America alone.
X10 is a Worldwide product line. (X10 also sell in Europe, Australia, and many other countries). Many of these emerging technologies fundamentally cannot comply with the regulatory approvals required for Europe. (They use frequencies that are not approvable in Europe).
The consumer doesn't care how "fast" a signal gets to a module, the consumer doesn't care what protocol is used, and X10 has proof (by its lack of sales of its two-way products compared to its huge installed base of its one-way products) that the consumer doesn't care about two-way. The American consumer only cares about three things: price, price, and price.
When these emerging technologies can sell a module for $9.99 and a controller for $4.99 like X10 does when RadioShack (one of its customers) runs a sale, or can even sell modules and controllers for $12.99 each, like X10 does every day, then, and only then, can they dare to think that they are any kind of threat to X10. These emerging technologies come and go. Has anyone heard of CEBus? Or Echelon? They were the first ones that were going to "kill X10." 28 years on, X10 is still alive and kicking, and they're gone.
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