I definitely see your point and actually had the same thought process for a long time (regarding Z-Wave being the more prevalent protocol), but seeing the hard numbers really changed my perspective.
I can’t officially give the source for this as it’s a paid report and I don’t think I’m authorized to share it, but this is the data I’ve been going off of:
Granted, the above is Global Sales and the report doesn’t break down protocols by region, but I still think it’s pretty accurate for North America.
The age old debate that we have internally is: does the average smart home user care about protocols, or do they care about features more?
My gut tells me (and it didn’t before, trust me, I was a hard, “Z-Wave all day” guy and so was the other Eric – he even more-so than me) that the average person does not care about what protocol is installed in their house, they just want it to work with their hub and they want all the cool features promised in the marketing.
The other thing that I often have to remind myself is that this forum doesn’t always reflect the general population. This is a hard pill to swallow sometimes, especially since we’re all so passionate here.
Point is, while there are some great threads in this forum about Z-Wave and how it’s the best technology (I definitely agree from a security and interference with WiFi standpoint, but I’m now actually really impressed with ZigBee and the fact it can do all the same things Z-Wave can from a feature-set) but going out into the wild… Reddit, ST/Hubitat Community, etc – there are a lot of people who don’t ever reference protocols and just ask, “what’s the best smart switch” or “how do I get my bulb to work with a smart switch”, etc.
Yeah for sure – this is a good point!
My question would be (same with investors), though, are there enough people who care about the protocol to justify a $15-20 price difference on essentially the same switch?
This is the part I’m struggling with personally.
But, if it makes the community happy, I’m always looking to score some points lol. I just don’t want to look at a bunch of dusty Red Series boxes.
I suppose, I could order 1-2k units easily and just see what happens.
This is also something I have to get engrained in my head and I appreciate you bringing it up again. Back when there were more employees here, I would always be the guy pushing to keep prices low, whereas others would say we needed to increase prices to cover costs, inflation, etc.
I hated seeing a $40+ smart switch on our site. In fact, it drove me nuts and I was convinced no one would buy it given the competition is somehow maintaining a mid-$20 switch.
But, you all proved me wrong lol.
To be clear, I still want to keep the price sub-$40, but yeah, it’s literally impossible right now.
This is definitely encouraging to hear – it does pain my heart to have to possibly do it, but I appreciate the honesty. I will check with the manufacturer to see what options we have.
I just sent them a proposal last night and am waiting to hear back (likely won’t be until after Chinese New Year) which included Z-Wave, so we’ll see.
LOL, I always tell ppl they could make a fortune buying our switches in bulk and then flipping them on ebay when we eventually run out.
Keep an eye on our site too – I wish we had an alert system, but @Courtney_Inovelli often puts up refurbs. They go within seconds, but they do get put up.
Yeah no problem! I can’t wait for the day when I can deliver good news all the time lol.
Right now we’re still tracking for late March, but to be conservative, I would count on April as UL is backed up in their certification process.