06.01.2009 — Intermatic, one of the leading developers of Z-Wave-enabled home automation products, is exiting the business.

The company is "maintaining current inventories and supporting current products but not manufacturing more," says spokesperson Deb Peterson.

Earlier this year, Intermatic dropped prices by 40 to 50 percent on its Z-Wave-compatible products, marketed under the inTouch and HomeSettings brands.

Intermatic's exit from Z-Wave is a blow to the Z-Wave community. "They had the most complete line," says Richard Scholl, president of Worthington Distribution, a leading distributor of Z-Wave products.

The Z-Wave compatible products included dimmers, switches, keypads, thermostats, timing controllers, relays, keyfobs, sensors handheld controllers, plug-in modules, a gateway, pool/spa controls and USB controllers.

Peterson says that Intermatic was "probably ahead of the curve" with its aggressive development of Z-Wave products.

Does the company plan to return to the home automation business? Probably not, except for areas like pool and spa control, where Intermatic has a real competitive advantage.

"For targeted markets it probably makes sense," Peterson says.

Not to worry. Plenty of other Z-Wave implementers will fill the gap. Apparently, some of them have bought the rights to certain Intermatic products, and there are still hundreds of compatible products from dozens of vendors.

UPDATE:
It sounds like Wayne-Dalton, a longtime partner of Intermatic, will pick up where Intermatic left off.

"We shared our product lines until the middle of last year," says Yan Rodriguez, director of home controls for Wayne-Dalton. "We developed their USB sticks, keyfobs, conversion modules and wireless gateway. We shared development on two other products. We purchased their entire inventory of three-way switches to serve as an interim until we get our own out of UL."