Re: is x10.com dead?

[Byron Hynes <bph@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Despite being a hobbyist, I don't think RadioRA is really a hobbyist thing.
I think systems tend to be spec'd at once, ordered (in custom colors, no
less) and installed together, which is not the X-10 pattern.

Lutron has been around a long time and has a HUGE base of installed commercial
and architectural controls. I think it will be a long time before you won't
be able to find a replacement part. On the other hand, I don't think it will
be cheap.

> "Robert L Bass" <sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>
> <stuff snipped>
>
>> I feel that Zwave is an acceptable alternative.  Like Radio RA, it is
>> still missing a few desirable features.  Unlike X10, it works
>> reliably and failure rates are quite low.  It's significantly less
>> than the cost of RA though more than twice the cost of X10.
>>
> What happens if Zwave dies?  There are a lot of competing protocols
> suddenly appearing on the market.  History says they won't all live.
> One thing we know for sure about HA is that it's an ever-expanding
> "hobby."  Heavily invest in Zwave or UPB or Control4 Insteon or Lutron
> RA and there's always the non-zero and perhaps substantial risk that
> you'll be orphaned.
>
> All of those false starts from IBM and Stanley and Sears were actually
> *good* for X-10 users because they added to the widening world of X-10
> as a universal HA protocol.  What will happen next in HA is just what
> happened with video tape formats.  In a world of cheap VHS and better
> but shorter and more expensive Beta the forces of competition
> inexorably grind *someone* down.
>
> That's going to happen in the HA arena the same as it does for
> airlines and
> PC companies.   I'll bet there are at least a few managers of these
> product
> lines that expected far greater initial sales than they've seen.  When
> the
> honchos in accounting decide that the venture isn't likely to be
> profitable - and that seems to take less and less time for big
> companies to
> decide in recent years - down the tubes will go Protocol X.  That's
> when its
> adherents will begin shopping for a new HA system.
> I'd say we're in the "MacCharlie" stage of home automation as compared
> to PCs revolution - still a few more years to go to see which of the
> many protocols floating around now becomes the standard.  I'm betting
> on Insteon because they are following the very successful model MS
> used to gain dominance in word processing from Wordstar:  They are
> creating the easiest migration path possible for the owners of
> competing equipment with their built-in X-10 translation.  All that's
> often needed to leapfrog the competition is a very small edge and from
> what I can see, Insteon's got it.
>
> --
> Bobby G.