IPad Replaces Touchscreens in Savant Control System Line

Savant is replacing its line of touchscreen controllers for its Apple OS-based home automation system with the iPad, CEO Bob Madonna told dealers Thursday at the 2010 Savant Dealer Conference in New York. Previous five-, seven-, nine- and 12-inch touchscreens had been made by Savant, but shifting to the iPad gives dealers a simpler sell to a widely recognized product, a lower cost hardware solution to dealers and a secure, reliable environment for touchpanel control, Madonna said. “The industry is changing,” he said. “We're going to discontinue the touchpanel line over the next few months realizing that the iPad greatly exceeds the capability in our existing line.”

With the message for dealers to “join the feeding frenzy,” Madonna said Apple’s new iPhone 4, OS4 and the iPad is an “exciting time for the entire industry” noting that consumers are waiting in line for Apple products and understand the value of the iPad, the iPhone and the Apple brand. “The technology is superior and it’s accepted by end users, which is critically important,” he said. “That’s not something our industry has had success with. CEDIA dealers sold one million touchpanels in 40 years,” Madonna said. “Apple sold three million iPads in the last 80 days. In 30 days it passed what it took us 30 years to do."

Madonna encouraged dealers to take advantage of “the changing world,” saying “there are 100 million devices out there and 100 million opportunities.” He contrasted the Apple-based approach by Savant with other touchscreen-based home control systems in the custom installation market that require integrators to write code and present an often difficult learning curve for customers.

"iPad is redefining what users find acceptable for a user interface,” Madonna said, “and it’s teaching millions of people to use touch interfaces.” The device is easily adaptable for home automation software and will create demand from home automation across the industry, Madonna said. To date, Savant has had more than 800 apps downloaded for the iPad at $9.99 apiece. “We're extremely pleased with the graphics and what we can do with the iPad,” he said, citing the ability to change from landscape to portrait mode and use gesture and swipe motions. “We take advantage of Apple’s SDKs to do animation and graphics,” he said, saying the Savant system is 100 percent native on the Apple platform. With the Savant app, the iPad is fully functioning out of the box, Madonna said, but it can also be configured and customized using Savant’s Blueprint software to create unique user experiences across various Apple devices. “You can change buttons, color and customize anything across the board without writing code,” he said. “That’s a huge differentiator.” He said the speed of the total system -- the combination of the iPad controller and the dual-core processors in the latest Mac Mini -- make Savant the fastest control system on the market.

The upcoming 4.2 software release from Savant will support new features made possible by the Apple’s iOS4 software update, which will enable Savant engineers to tap into Apple’s toolkit rather than having to write code for documents. New updates from Savant include a refreshed iPhone application, driven by the graphic design capability of the iPad. Users can control their system in either portrait or landscape mode, use swipe motion and provide services docks on either side of the screen. New iPad features in the 4.2 release of Savant software include a mobile application that enables users to access their ROSIE home control systems from the road. And like the new iPhone 4, the iPad will be able to multitask, elevating the iPad and iPhone from purely control devices in a home automation setting to more interactive devices. Users will be able to access e-mail, turn off lights and put the movie on mute without having to close out of one application first.

Savant is offering two iPod docks: in-wall and desktop versions. The in-wall version, designed for entryways and other fixed locations, will be Wi-Fi but not 3G. It’s designed to be locked into the wall with an alarm that wires back to the system if the iPad is removed. In-wall docks will also have a wired Ethernet backup option so users can still control the lights, music, video and HVAC if the wireless network goes down. A new Savant iPad desktop dock charges the iPad and enables guests to use their own iPads to access the system.