Insteon's future?

[rvc]

Before throwing a houseful of X10 stuff in the trash and buying a raft of new Insteon stuff, I thought I would ask the group what everyone thought about the future of Insteon.

Is 2008 going to consume the Insteon universe as it did the X10 group?

Insteon does not appear to have gained dominant market penetration and it certainly doesn't look like a lot of product development is underway.

Is the Insteon format a dying horse too?

[oberkc]

certainly doesn't look like a lot of product development is underway

 

I see continued development. Micromodules have been recently released. 220V50Hz devices are now available. Over the recent years, we have seen the migration to dual-band devices. I see no signs of a near-term demise of insteon.

 

Still, it is hard to predict the future.

[Brian H]

Insteon seems to be suffering from a single manufacturer's whims.

 

In late 2005 when I started with Insteon and joined the Developers Group. They gave us a big list of manufacturers looking into Insteon.

Well all of them quietly disappeared.

Memory here. Leviton decided to go to ZWave instead of Insteon.

IMHO Smartlabs Licensing Requirements and overly tight grip on their protocol. Is limiting Insteons potential. With other manufacturers products.

 

I don't think Insteon is going away any time soon.

 

X10 is not completely gone or dead. True X10 Wireless Technologies Inc. went out of business. A new company has taken over the product line and seems to be providing plenty of devices again. Though not at the old prices.

[gatchel]

As long as they don't let out QC nightmares as the have in the past for all of us end users to beta test you should be good.

 

When asking a person about insteon, the longer they have been an insteon user, the higher the likelyhood that they will have bad things to say about insteon. The newer adopters don't seem to have as many problems.

 

I still say Smartlabs should be sending a commission check to Universal Devices. Having an ISY-xx is what allowed me to begrudgingly stay with the technology. Without a 3rd party to put Smartlabs in their place when there are issues, us end users would never see the truth or get issues taken care of.

[rvc]

"Leviton decided to go to ZWave"

 

"let out QC nightmares"

 

"Smartlabs Licensing Requirements and overly tight grip on their protocol"

 

Indeed...this Smarthome/Insteon bunch was a real piece of work long before Insteon came along. Remember?

It's principal must be a real "tool".

They've chased the balance of the manufacturing industry right out the door.

I think I'll go with a different format which has a little more ethical leadership.

Somebody's a little too proud of their patent.

[madcodger]

I've absolutely had issues with SH in the past, but newer devices seem to work well. And as for what they have or haven't done re: other manufacturers, those are biz dev / strategic growth issues that they have every right to make with their own product line. We may not agree with them, but they're hardly ethical issues as far as I can see. If you have a beef with them, just state it and complain openly. No need to state your complaints in the form of a question. This ain't Jeopardy...

[Teken]

Speaking for my self only I believe Insteon will continue to grow and be adopted by many home enthusiasts. More than five years ago you could not have paid me to purchase one single item from SH / Insteon.

 

Everyone knows the whole story about why so I won't even explain it. I literally sat on the fence waiting to see, read, and hear from other users about how the product developed. As time went on many of the problems were resolved and many more new products brought to market.

 

In the time I have owned Insteon and have dealt with SH it has been a positive experience. Anyone who has ever taken a moment to read my writing in this forum and others know I am quick to judge, but quicker to acknowledge resolution and success.

 

If someone asked me today about *If I should purchase Insteon for my home* it would be a resounding yes! They have continued to release more products and items than any other maker. All the while increasing their market share around the globe.

 

My only jab at them is that at some point in time the price point on key items needs to come down. Who ever is responsible for the pricing and marketing of the product needs to be fired. They have no clue about strategic pricing and how to gain market share.

 

One only needs to look at the last four items just released from them. This is just one perfect example of out pricing yourself from the market and to the customer: http://www.smarthome.com/2335-226/INSTE ... ack/p.aspx

 

Now to be fair someone in Management must be watching a little bit. As they have left a few items on perpetual sale which seems to be a good balance of value and profit for both parties such as these:

 

http://www.smarthome.com/2475F/FanLinc- ... and/p.aspx

 

http://www.smarthome.com/2472DWH/Outlet ... ite/p.aspx

 

This is one of my all time favorites $49.99 WTF?? http://www.smarthome.com/2401C8/Custom- ... bpage=prod Clearly at the more sane price of $19.99 not only did they move more but it made sense!

 

At the end of the day the product is great. I expect to see more items and features being provided as the years go bye. The only problem I see is that if SH ever goes broke or decides to leave the HA industry the Insteon adopter will be screwed!

 

I have purchased many spare units for that just in case scenario. As I have way too much money, time, and effort for it to go poof!

 

Teken . . .

[arw01]

From my perspective, only Leviton with it's RF line seems to be a competitor in the "hobbiest" market. I don't know what Control 4 and that ilk use for devices, UPB? Far as I can tell you are talking $100 a switch for them. For peets sake you can buy a phone for less that that these days.

 

All the kickstarter babies will go away long before insteon does, it's not perfect, but the company is a lot more stable than any startup. With their expansion into international markets with the 50hz 220 items, I suspect you have many years yet.

 

Perhaps someday we would have a true rocker switch that stays in on or off and moves on it's own, has a touch sensitive display that could show me anything I wanted, relay or dimmer depending on how I configure it, and a back-end that my wife can figure out..

 

Alan