New York – An in-wall iPhone/iPod
Touch dock will join Savant’s selection of in-wall iPad docks that use an app
to control Savant’s Apple-based integrated home-control system, the company
said here during a dealer conference.
The company
also said that over the next six months, it plans to phase out its own brand of
in-wall touchscreens that control its home-control system, called Rosie.
Earlier
this year, the company shipped
two in-wall
iPad docks/chargers
, each at a suggested $500.
They flush-mount an iPad into the wall, with one displaying the iPad
horizontally and the other displaying it vertically. In either case, the iPad
can be removed from its recharging dock for handheld use. While in the wall or
in a user’s hands, the iPad uses Wi-Fi to control Savant’s Apple-based integrated
home-control system.
Here at the
dealer conference, the company also announced plans for a wired iPad in-wall
dock due later this fall at an unannounced price. The new dock will use Wi-Fi
to control Savant systems but will fall back on a hardwire connection to a
Rosie system if the Wi-Fi network fails, a spokesman said.
Also in the
fall, Savant plans to ship an in-wall dock for the iPod Touch at a suggested
$200. It will use Wi-Fi to talk to a Rosie system, but a version with wired
backup is planned to ship sometime after the CEDIA Expo at an unannounced
price, the spokesman said. Although Savant already offers a home-control app
for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, the company plans a new app for use with
docked Touches/iPhones, the spokesman added.
Savant has
promoted its home-control app for the iPad as broadening the customer base for
integrated home-control systems, partly by reducing costs but mostly by
boosting ease of use for consumers. iPad prices start at $500 compared with
$3,000 to $6,000 for dedicated in-wall home-control touchscreens with 7-inch to
12-inch displays.
The iPad’s
lower price gives dealers an opportunity to sell more iPads into an install
compared with the number of dedicated home-control touchscreens they could have
sold, the company has said. Customers’ money will likewise be freed up to
purchase advanced services, the company said.
