UEI Pulls Plug on Nevo Remote Controls

Hell, I thought they were gone a while ago.

“the iPad and the relatively high price of Pronto was not to blame for the division’s demise.”

Nonsense.

It may not have been the only factor but it was definitely IMO the final nail in the coffin.

Nevo died because the high end stand alone universal remote market is dieing. Not because we dont need a rock solid universal remote.. but because the competition is stiff. Harmony is forever chomping away and the iPad & products like command fusion are offering more bang for the buck. URC and RTI are multi-room products and thats where the market is heading.

I am pretty sure Prodigy snatched a few sales away also.

Damn! I really liked the Nevo Q50.

Hindsight being 20/20, let me remind UEI of at least a few things they did wrong

1. The S70 was a poor offering for it lacked the tactile DVR buttons of the Q50.  You could have avoided having two remotes and simply gone with the Q50 and given it the wi-fi features of the S70.

2.  The new line of “custom” remotes, the C3 and C2 suck.  They really really suck.  You should have left them in Europe and never brought them to the US.  How can you make the numbers on the remote so small and difficult to press?  Come one now, this is the #1 basic element of any remote.  If anyone should lose their job at UEI, it’s the guy/girl who designed these remotes.

3.  The antenna on the C3 is #### poor horrendous.  How could you even release this product to market?  The Logitech RF module goes a further distance than this ###### thing.

I think this sentence summarizes it all:

“...Dealers have had an on-again, off-again relationship with Nevo, which at times has been ill-supported by UEI…”

Eyal Kattan
http://www.medianexus.us

Julie,
Can you clarify what Klavers meant by revising the distribution of UEI products to more limited regional distributors?  If UEI has no near term plans to come back to the custom channel what specifically is the UEI product that will be provided thru the revised distribution plan?  Will it be the C series remote as marketed under the OneForAll brand?

Worthington used to sell URC products direct to consumers at a discount.  That’s why they were dropped.  Good luck getting them or RTI on board.

I sell and install Crestron and RTI.  Recently needed a remote for a simple theatre setup in my own home.  I grabbed a Harmony One from the shop as a “temporary” measure over Christmas. 
It works great and is MUCH better designed for one hand use than any remote I installed last year.
It will stay and I will go to Hawaii with the price difference, even paying dealer cost.  Lights have to be done the old fashioned way….bother factor zero.

This sucks as we absolutely love the Q50 and S70. The C3 was lacking in several areas but was decent for the price. The Nevo Studio Pro software is awesome, especially compared to URC’s crap software. Do you really need a completely separate program for each and every model of remote? RTI has realy nice remotes but their problem is cost. I could almost buy 2 S70s for the cost of a single T3-V+. Their cheapest remote is the T1 and it doesn’t even have a LCD display. Really? No LCD? Wake up and smell the coffee RTI. I won’t even mention Harmony’s and what I think of them. I had enough of them years ago.

Personally I think the iPhone, iPad, & iTouche make horrible remotes for normal TV watching. They definitely have changed things but they are far from being ideal products. Just try and surf one handed with one. Most of our customers want hard buttons and not have to relaunch a app every time they want to change channels. One of customers thought that they wanted to use their iPad. After a week they called begging for a remote with hard buttons.

While there is market for tablets and iTouch type products, I believe that the majority of people just want a simple to use, non-intimidating remote that is affordable. As installer, I want something that is easy to program with a SINGLE piece of software and not have to connect to the internet every single time I need to make a change.

Hopefully UEI will “reassess” their product offering and either relaunch the Nevo line or come out with something even better.

I’m agreement with Scott M. 

This sucks.  I’ve invested a lot of time in mastering these remotes and some of advanced functionality for Wifi, Z-Wave, Serial, Widgets, Plug-ins etc. 

These were great products, very sorry to hear that they are ending them.  Doesn’t leave anything left for advanced control of Z-Wave in a high end hand held.

Also leaves me nervous, for the many deployments I have out there and long term support of those.

Nevo Studio Pro, I think is the best programming platform for handheld remotes out there.

Definitely a bummer.

Agreed.  The Q50 is my favorite remote for features, layout, price point, ergonomics, allowed for some two way, and just about the most powerful reliable IR output.  Programming software was a quick learn yet filled with advanced features.  Basically a good go to solution.  Sure I was hoping to see an upgrade for the touchscreen resolution but not a deal breaker.  Alas I guess it’s back to RTI though there’s frustrating issues with just about the entire lineup in one way or another.  I guess I’ll be looking at the Elan g! Remote a little closer but that’s also at a much higher pricepoint if I recall right.

Sad News! Em is a great professional and did her best to build the business, but Julie, you’re assessment of the iPad / mobile device impact is correct - the IT industry is affecting our business.

First vNet and now Nevo. Who’s next?

At least with Nevo I have stock and can sell the stuff off.

Making business decisions like this isn’t tough, but we as dealers need to kno so we can adjust our business…and we need to know quickly. I know that statement puts us at odds with those that are fighting to grow their sales and prove that the business will work over time. I am wondering about the long term viability of our channel with announcements like these happening all too often. Time to get more networking / IT experience….

The iTouch and iPad are not replacements for universal remote controls in my opinion.  They may work for the younger generation of clients, but most of my clients that actually have money want at least some hard buttons on their remotes.  The S70 with the correct programming could suffice and had some benefits with the wifi, but the Q50 definitely had the better overall design and was priced well for a niche market.

The biggest loss is the best Z-Wave controllable hand helds out there.  My entire home automation system is Z-Wave, and I’ve sold several clients on Nevo and Leviton, Wayne Dalton, Trane, Schlage, Vera, and others. 

Not to mention Nevo and Russound integration with Serial is very polished, and Squeezebox while not perfect is decent via browser on S70, and recent partial Sonos integration didn’t hurt.  I honestly had high hopes and great respect for the Nevo Pro line.

I will say the Nevo Custom line was huge let down, and had no chance of competing with Logitech, but don’t kill a great product that fits a needed market, due to a poorly conceived product without one.

Still we have no system that uses the idevice/android in a usable way for total integration. Only good control solutions handle only one device at a time.
Please proove me wrong.

To UEI:

I hope in reading the comments on this posting, that you understand your Pro line was loved amongst many dealers.  If your issues are profitability and the threat of app based remotes, then I would say you reconsider killing the whole Nevo line and focus on two things:

1. Eliminate all remotes except for the Q50 but give the Q50 the S70 features.  Watching TV is a “lazy” hobby and people like to flip through channels without looking at the remote.  The additional buttons on the Q50 give people enough button action without having to look down at the remote for guide, menu, info, DVR, channel, and volume functions - the core functions for practically every device one needs to control.

2. Make the remote configurations portable to app based OS’s.  As others mentioned, the Nevo software is great.  Now simply invest in the ability to port over those custom screens over to iOS, Android, and Windows 7 and you’ve got yourself a new revenue stream.  Enable the myriad of handheld and tablet devices to leverage the NevoConnect IR, RF, Z-wave, and Serial connectivity and you compete with Sling for bridging the new internet and app based media products to legacy products.

If you don’t start focusing on #2, being relavent in the app based market, then your bread-and-butter business of owning the largest IR library and providing remote control solutions to other companies will soon be the next to close its doors.

It’s a mistake that you put an end to the Nevo line, especially when one of your largest competitors has also recently decided to exit the market.

@Ed Tsvik, great ideas although I think it needs to be the other way around. The S70 needs the Q50’s hard buttons. The larger screen is must have. Making the software portabel is a brilliant idea. It would give us the ability to sell a handle held or a tablet all withe the same software and hardware int he background. the Nevoconnect’s abilities place it far ahead of what the competition has. I literally could sell half a dozen tablets tomorrow if this would happen.

to add to Ed’s list:
2. complete the 2way HAI plug-in and partner with ELAN and i think you would quickly find yourself back in game with a loyal following that would start growing rather quickly. A friend of mine has been asking for features like this for customers for several years. He would drop URC and RTI in a heartbeat.

Maybe we need to start a petition. I know the guys at Worthington quite well and I know they have been working closely with Patrick from UEI on the HAI plug-in. I’ll call them tomorrow and pass Ed’s suggestions along and see if they will pass them along to Patrick.