Automated outlet has intermatic pro line (OUCH!)

R

Rustytek

Active Member
Looking at AO site I noticed they have posted Intermatic's proline swithes (just two so far). And then I look at the prices, this is where the OUCH comes in. I hope this is an overpricing as they did with the $10000 elk touchscreen. Martin could perhaps ring in on this. If this is going to be the actual price, oh yeah - $95.00 per switch, then NO THANKS. The manufacturing cost couldn't be over $10.00. Z-wave designed the core processor they just have to connect the wires and put a piece of plastic around it. As for R&D, they have been producing Z-Wave switches for a year at a third of the cost so R&D should already be covered. They must justify the price with the multiple faceplates they include in the box. Damn, they use expensive plastic. I swore I would never go back to powerline control technologies after X-10 issues, but UPB and their $50 dollar switches are looking a lot better.

Another rant. Does intermatic not understand that when there are more suppliers, cost goes down and not up (Economics 101). They do realize there are now (in June) going to be 4 suppliers of switches instead of the two we currently have. If they want their product line to survive they better go back to school.

Enough ranting. Perhaps this was hopefully a waste of time and Martin has posted a very high price on these switches as he did with the ELK Touchscreen.

Martin?
 
I certainly agree that Martin has the best prices that can be foud, ANYWHERE.

Perhaps my previous comments were hastily posted. I just spoke with Martin and found out some other details on the switches and confirmed the price for $95.00. These are Martin's cost's so I am not getting down on Automated Outlet (the greatest store on earth - my toy store) but on Intermatic and the other two players coming to the market in June.

I may have underestimated production cost. Perhaps $10 is a little low. That being said I checked out zensys.com and found this

"The ZW0201 will allow you to cost reduce your products by dollars! The chip will be priced below $3 when ordered in 100 k quantities. Further the chip has integrated many external components to also reduce the surrounding component to about $1 meaning that a product can be Z—Wave enabled by adding less than $4 to the Bill of Material."

I now add on production cost's (I'll be generous) $20.00. We are now at $24.00. As I said before, they must use expensive plastic. 95.00 - 24.00 = $71.00 less a %20 markup for profit for intermatic and another %20 for sales/distributing would mean the plastic cost's $48.00. (This comment is purely presumptive. I am using GENERALIZED values for my calculations - so don't faultily interpret my comments - yes, these comments are out of anger and disappointment)


THE POSITIVE:

The new switches support some other features:

Scene control
Built in 3-way option
2 way communication - no more polling


AND BACK TO THE NEGATIVE:

But still, $95.00.

I was also informed that there will TWO more players in the market in June, so my economics 101 comment still applies.
 
If this is going to be the actual price, oh yeah - $95.00 per switch, then NO THANKS.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but that is actually a pretty heavily discounted price (over $40 off of list price).

These are the switches with 2-way status. Other manufacturers will be coming out 2-way versions this summer (hopefully) too but I wouldn't expect the price to be less than the Intermatics.

Yep, makes UPB look better to me too.
 
Hehe, guess 2 other posts came in while I was typing.

Please keep something in mind, it is my belief that they are targeting the Lutron market for these switches, not the $20-$40 switch market. Lutron RadioRA switches are much more expensive than the new Intermatic switches. They feel that the functionality closer matches Lutron than the current Zwave offerings.
 
Well, I saw that price the other day too and am a bit disappointed. I was bagging on Zigbee stuff for being $100 for a switch. Looks like X10 will live on.
 
what do you mean by 2-way?
Z-Wave is by definition 2 way. the controller does a "get" and the switch responds with what level it is at.
or are we talking about something else here?
 
I assume they mean these send out notifications upon change, so that you don't have to poll them constantly, you only need to poll periodically to make sure they are still there and alive.
 
Will be interesting to see how much the Clipsal CBUS switches cost when they hit the U.S. market.....CBUS i s an Oz based hardwired lighting system (also available in the UK) ... Heres a link to the product...

http://www.cbussales.com/

Frank
 
Rusty -
You are not including support costs in your equations. Industry average for tech support is around $25 a call. I do think that they are trying to compete with high-end products and as such want them to be priced accordingly. This was what I was also told about UPB's pricing. Insteon seems to be the only one of these players that is trying to target average consumers with $20 switches. I really hope that all these products end up competing a bit more on price. If that happens, we will all win.

/carmi
 
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