Super High-End Home Theaters
Fascinating Sci-Fi Home Theaters
Gorgeous Celebrity Home Theaters
Our favorite themed home theaters.
Print
Email
Comments (4)
Share
Intermatic Ends Z-Wave Run
Intermatic had the “most complete line” of Z-Wave compatible products.
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."
Subscribe to the CE Pro Newsletter
Read more Z-Wave stories
Do We Really Need a Home Automation Standard?4Home and Verizon Wireless Collaborate on Home Control Services for a 4G LTE Network
Techniku Needs Buyer ASAP for Motorized Shade Control Business
CES Teaser: Schlage Z-Wave Door Locks and Central Monitoring
CEDIA 2009: 8 Things I Really Want for my Own House
More in Z-Wave
Article Topics
News · Product News · Home Automation and Control · Control Systems · Z-Wave · Home Automation · Z-wave ·About the Author
4 Comments
I feel pretty confident that W-D or others will pick up the slack. My guess is that Intermatic products were artificially low for quite some time as they looked to clear their inventory.
I’m wondering if this is not just the beginning of the death march for Z-Wave. All the developers I talk with say Zensys/Leviton is stunting Z-Wave growth due to their withholding of information…all that proprietary stuff…which basically cripples anyone developing who does not have the expensive Zensys developer’s kit.
No fresh minds, no innovation, no competition, no product life. Pretty simple.
For instance go to Control Think’s forum section on the SDK and read through the threads. Notice all the “You can’t do that…” responses, or, simply no responses at all to serious developer questions. That will give you a flavor for the “health” of Z-Wave.
The comments from Wayne-Dalton are encouraging.
Ack. This doesn’t sound good at all - can we get references to other manufacturers? Many of the kits advertised on other sites (Wayne-Dalton, for instance) seem to be relying on Intermatic devices. And one of the big advantages of Z-Wave over other technologies was cost, and Intermatic was a big factor in that.