Apple Unveils iPad Tablet

That seems a little silly to me—an iPod touch, only bigger?

As for applications in the home, unless it wakes with a single button press, it will continue to be less than optimal for home control.

OK. It has finally debuted. The iPad.

I think you have a jaundiced view of the iPad. “applications in the home” does not mean a replacement for a Control4 controller or even a fancy remote. Apple doesn’t intend this to be for “home control”—that’s up to the companies like Control4 to develop. This is a platform—a consumer platform. For browsing media, surfing the web and playing games, among other things.

When compared to a 9.7” Kindle DX, the iPad looks great.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015TG12Q

Great as a general purpose device for internet browsing, as a gaming platform, or as a reading platform. Now they have about two months to get the content in their store. This is THE netbook for the less-geeky masses. They have introduced smart phones to the mass consumer and now ebooks and media.

Think of the iPad as an empty box. There is really nothing in/on it. You will need to fill it with your own content—and your own apps.

For some it will be a portable video player, some will get interfaces to control their Sonos or Control4 Systems, and others will use it as a convenient browsing device.

It is an empty box. Open your mind.

Less than optimal!
You shouldn’t get one anyway.

WooHoo ... I was simply referring to the hype among integrators that the iPad could replace home-control touchscreens.

This is a cool device and should make touchscreen vendors more than a little nervous.

This exciting new product is a natural fit for an Apple based product line like Savant

Crestron dealers in particular going to have a harder time justifying thousands of dollars for a wireless Crestron touch panel with the iPad for $499 in the public mind.

Indeed, even the most persuasive integrators are going to have a tough time trying to convince consumers to buy a $5,000 touchscreen when they see something like this for $500. It’s been a problem all along—consumers wondering why they are supposed to pay multiples more for a dedicated home-control touchscreen when a generic PC touchscreen goes for something like $1,500.

We as CE Pros know the difference, but this thing is going to make it harder to sell an expensive clunky touchscreen for home control and media.

Elan/Homlogic just pooped their panties.  Crestron is 80% tied into commercial so their safe.  Control4 doesn’t work anyway.  So, companies left standing with products that have value will continue to thrive.  Think verticle market products like lighting, HVAC, and securty/surveillance. The maxi pad will be what nerds will use to control these devices.  Just ask that psycho Jeremy @ Speakercraft.  He’s been prophetizing this for over a year.

Apparently, investors think the iPad is not so iRad, but iBad. Apple is getting pummeled on the stock market today.  How iSad.

iJesus + iPad = iFail

Julie, about your statement “We as CE Pros know the difference, but this thing is going to make it harder to sell an expensive clunky touchscreen for home control and media,” the worst part is that yes I know the difference, and the difference is that customers complain about their Crestron TPMC-8X lasting for about an hour off the charger, having terrible Wifi reception, and costing way too much at a list price of $3800. I also know that it was sold for a long time with batteries that would swell over time and cause problems. Not that Apple doesn’t have quality issues of their own at times, but you could buy almost 8 iPads for the cost of a TPMC-8X and get supposedly 10 hour battery life in use. To be fair I haven’t heard anything yet about Wifi performance on the iPad and build quality could still be an issue. Given, the 8X is getting long in the tooth so it isn’t quite a fair comparison to a newly custom designed product that isn’t even available yet (iPad).

It doesn’t get much prettier when you get into Crestron’s newer wireless touch panels. $3200 for a (non-Wifi) TPS-6X and $1990 for a TPMC-4XG, which one customer pointedly reminded me was more than a nicely appointed MacBook Air (not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison [no pun intended] but I got his point).

It’s tough to be in the hardware business.

I was very skeptical when everyone started making automation apps for the iPod touch, but after having used an iPod in several of my installations, I’m a believer.  The problem with the iPod touch is that it’s just a little too small, however from a hardware standpoint it is an amazing piece. 

Don’t just think that Savant has this market cornered, every automation manufacture that has an iPod app now can technically work on the iPad.  I’m sure they are all rewriting apps to to take advantage of this new real estate as we speak (blog).  I am happy to try this new touchscreen.  I’ll bet at any price there isn’t a touch screen available that can compete from an automation controller standpoint, especially at $500.  I’m sure that everyone is going to post that you can’t make any money on it.  Charge for the installation!  I charge $400 for every iPod I add to a system, and it takes me no more than 10 minutes to get it connected and working.  It makes it even easier to charge more, when the device starts @ $500 instead of $200.  Why is everyone afraid of lower cost devices.  The lower the entry point the more homes I can get into.  Our industry is experiencing a revolution right now.  Lower priced systems and devices.  Embrace it and go make some money. Increased reliability and painless installations.  What more can you ask for?

I wont have a hard time trying to convince a client to purchase a touchscreen unless the iPad can run something like xpanel and keep it launched and connected.

High end clients, the ones paying $5k for a touchpanel, are not going to trade convenience for $ savings.

At best, it gives entry level systems some interesting options. Many were already attempting to use the iTouch as the primary controller in an effort to stay under budget. A larger panel with the same features is an easy sell in these situations.

The iPad can never replace a dedicated purpose-built home automation controller. As a professional installer, if you cannot explain the difference to your clients, then you should not be in this business. If you still miss the point, let me help you out:

1. Client is browsing the web with their iPad while watching TV.

2. Suddenly, a commercial comes on with aggravating audio more than double the level of the show they were watching.

3. If this were a purpose built control device, they would simply press the volume down hard button.

4. Since this is an iPad/iPhone/iTouch and can only run one application at a time, the client must shut down the browser, launch the control application for manufacturer’s hardware, wait for the connection to be made and FINALLY press the volume down button.

5. Client wants to go back to browsing the web, so they close the control application and launch browser once again.

6. Wait .. commercials are now over and client can no longer hear the show ... and so the dance goes on this way all night long.

I have watched a few of my clients try this dance, until they realize how frustrating it really is. There is not substitute for a dedicated control device in an automated home.

That’s a nice high horse you’re on there dave. Let me put my foot in the stirrup for a minute.

The customer picks up their dedicated TPMC-8X from the coffee table to change volume, and they have to wait two minutes for it to wake up and establish a Wifi connection. This happens because it has such poor battery life that I had to set it to go to sleep after a period of time so it would actually last all the way through the movie they’re watching.

The situation you describe is certainly plausible and is a great argument for dedicated controls, but there are downsides to available high-end custom control solutions. I agree that there is no substitute for a GREAT dedicated control device, but every device has its shortcomings and few available touch panels (in particular) are what I would consider great.

And couldn’t you use an iPad as a dedicated control interface, i.e. uninstall all the other applications (not sure this is possible) and tell the customer that they can only use it for automation control unless they want to have the experience you describe above? They generally wouldn’t expect multitasking from a dedicated control interface so you could set their expectations of the dedicated iPad to be nothing more than an automation control interface.

Obviously the hard buttons (especially for volume) that you can get from a dedicated control interface would be missed on an iPad. I wonder if it would be possible to create custom shells for the iPad that would plug into the dock connector and provide the hard buttons that the device itself lacks? Maybe that would be a way to make the iPad a dedicated controller, so whenever the custom Crestron shell is plugged into the iPad the Crestron control app is the only app that will run. Plus since you’re using the dock connector you’d need an alternate way of charging the panel, so Crestron could sell a custom charging dock that works with the shell. This is all assuming the iPad hardware and software is worth a crap in the first place, and Crestron would be subject to Apple’s whim with the hardware and software

And really, I wouldn’t even be posting in this thread if Crestron had an updated 8X that addressed most of its shortcomings, like the revisions to the 4X (now 4XG) that fixed the battery life and the connection issues we had with the original 4X.