Does UPB have any mindshare?

[WayneW]

http://parksassociates.blogspot.com/2007/1...zigbee-and.html

This article mentions Z-Wave, ZigBee and Insteon, but NOT UPB. Does anybody have any opinions about why UPB is getting ignored? There certainly are a number of UPB fans here on CT. I was also surprised that ONLY 7% of integrators were aware of Z-wave and/or Insteon. I could understand a low percentage of people actually using them, but aren't integrators at least supposed to be AWARE of new things?

I think Z-wave is well-know in the home controls industry; essentially unknown among consumers and just beginning to be known among home systems integrators. On one of our regular surveys (conducted in Q1 2007) of home systems integrators (the CEDIA channel), we asked about the familiarity with Z-Wave. Approximately 7% of integrators were aware of the technology and products incorporating it. Awareness of INSTEON was comparable; ZigBee significantly higher. Our Q1 2008 survey will reveal if the Z-Wave alliance has made any progress on this front.

 

[keepersg]

I'm not surprised though I'd be skeptical of their data until I saw the methods. New technology takes a long time to be integrated into home construction. A couple of years ago, we had a new air conditioning system installed. I had installed an HAI thermostat which was controlling the old AC system and the radiant hot water heating system. The AC installer just couldn't handle that idea. He and his company insisted on installing a separate thermostat for the AC--old ways die hard. For the most part this HA stuff is either an expensive (and time consuming) hobby or a luxury item for those with plenty of disposable income. I have a friend building a new house who just spent $50+K on a hardwired Lutron system who wants to come over and see what I've done in my old house--Insteon, Elk, PH, Touch screens, pretty typical for this forum. It will be an interesting conversation.

 

[MikeB]

This article mentions Z-Wave, ZigBee and Insteon, but NOT UPB. Does anybody have any opinions about why UPB is getting ignored? There certainly are a number of UPB fans here on CT. I was also surprised that ONLY 7% of integrators were aware of Z-wave and/or Insteon. I could understand a low percentage of people actually using them, but aren't integrators at least supposed to be AWARE of new things?

My impression from what I've seen and people I've talked to is that UPB is simply not promoted enough. Lack of big-name manufacturers (Leviton, Cooper, etc..) probably hurts. Insteon might not have that, but they have a strong internet/catalog presence and good X10 roots. A couple manufacturers at EHX told me Insteon was their #1 retrofit customer-base. If Z-Wave hits its stride with Leviton and Cooper behind them, that will probably change.

 

[LightenUP]

HAI product availability at HOME DEPOTS can also increase awareness.

 

[linuxha]

Does Elk have support for UPB? They seem to have support for everything else.

 

[WayneW]

Does Elk have support for UPB? They seem to have support for everything else.

Yes, Elk supports UPB. But, no offense to Elk, I don't know that Elk is a top-of-mind brand yet (again? ie Moose) and Elk probably doesn't do much to promote UPB in particular (since they support so many lighting systems).

 

[George West]

http://parksassociates.blogspot.com/2007/1...zigbee-and.html

This article mentions Z-Wave, ZigBee and Insteon, but NOT UPB. Does anybody have any opinions about why UPB is getting ignored? There certainly are a number of UPB fans here on CT. I was also surprised that ONLY 7% of integrators were aware of Z-wave and/or Insteon. I could understand a low percentage of people actually using them, but aren't integrators at least supposed to be AWARE of new things?

I think Z-wave is well-know in the home controls industry; essentially unknown among consumers and just beginning to be known among home systems integrators. On one of our regular surveys (conducted in Q1 2007) of home systems integrators (the CEDIA channel), we asked about the familiarity with Z-Wave. Approximately 7% of integrators were aware of the technology and products incorporating it. Awareness of INSTEON was comparable; ZigBee significantly higher. Our Q1 2008 survey will reveal if the Z-Wave alliance has made any progress on this front.

Hey Wayne,

Without getting too "inside baseball" about the analyst world, if you get to use an uncalibrated instrument you can prove pretty much anything. If you don't ask the question "hey dude, you ever used UPB?" you might not get a response. Parks is plumping their Connections Europe event and if you go to their web page and check out the different paid sponsors you can draw your own conclusions about what is going on here. Throwing out sometimes random statistics about different topics is a trademark of this particular analyst. I sometimes amuse myself at his presentations by translating from percentages to units to calibrate the data. You sometimes find that what sounds like a huge opportunity on a percentage basis is actually pretty small when expressed as units.

Regarding UPB and mindshare here is my take. If your first exposure to the products is at Fry's with their lame merchandising of HA then you'll never look at UPB again. The UPB world is dominated by companies that are kinda complacent about their businesses. It is beastly hard to get some of them to talk about what they are trying to do. Martin at AO probably does the best job of promoting the products but he is only one guy/company. Scot Klodoski(?) at PCS seems to be heavily promoting that company and the technology and maybe he will make a difference. Unfortunately if a company wants to make a splash from a PR perspective it needs to pony up some cash to one or more of the industry analyst firms or to the trade press. Oh and one last thing, UPB isn't RF and isn't cool no matter how well it works and that contributes to the low awareness too.

Actual sales guy quote: "Why do you want to use RF? Because you want to make money!"

As always YMMV.

George West
www.wtrs.net

 

[Steve]

Scot Klodoski(?) at PCS seems to be heavily promoting that company and the technology and maybe he will make a difference.

I think Scott will make a difference given enough time. He has not been at PCS too long and I think was in large part responsible for Gen II and the new website. With his background at Smarthome I think he knows what it takes to do marketing and hopefully we'll continue to see improvements.