2021-2022 Roadmap

[Eric_Inovelli]

I wanted to give a quick update on our roadmap. We’ve grown a lot over the past couple of years and are entering into a new and exciting phase both with our own company, but with the industry as a whole. We started off with some huge ambitions to create an entire ecosystem of products under the principle of, “if you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself”, which sounded like a great idea, but in the end, it spread us very thin from a resources and branding standpoint that we ultimately changed our strategy and who we are as a company (for the better).

We learned quickly that it takes a ton of money to create new products (around $100k per SKU) and we have to be very careful of what we launch as if it goes south, that’s a lot of R&D wasted and sometimes it’s hard to recover financially… especially mid-pandemic:

(Sorry, I had to).

Since our brand is all about innovation, we have to spend money on R&D as we don’t want to take a white-label product and make it our own, we’d rather develop something that’s ours and is unique to us.

Anyway, we’ve had many discussions with investors and they’ve all said the same thing. Pick an area where you’re good at, stabilize and then move outward into other areas if it still makes sense. For us, that’s lighting.

Our Roadmap moving forward will be focused on lighting (switches and bulbs). If a white-label opportunity makes sense, you may see those pop up (sensors), but outside of that, we will be focused on lighting only. Taking this a step further, you’ll see us focusing on two distinct areas within lighting: Mass Market and Tech Enthusiasts/Security. We’ve chosen ZigBee/Matter to target the Mass Market as we believe that is the future right now, whereas we’ll continue to create Z-Wave products for the Tech Enthusiasts and security companies.

Below you’ll find our product roadmap. Of course, if there’s any suggestions, we’d love to hear it!

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Click on the various drop-downs to see the roadmaps. Sorry, it was getting really long, so I made it look a little cleaner!

2021 Roadmap - Detailed

Z-Wave

Please see below for the various Z-Wave projects for 2021. It’s a limited lineup as we need to work through some negotiations with our current Z-Wave manufacturer.

5-Button Switch: Project Limitless

This is a 5-Button switch where the bottom two buttons control a physical load (but can also be used for scenes) and the top three buttons are used for scene control only (ie: virtual loads).

Status: Open for Pre-Order
Project Page: Limitless Community Page
Product Page: 5-Button In-Wall Switch

ZigBee/Matter

Please see below for the various ZigBee/Matter projects for 2021. We’re excited to kick these off and have them ready for the official launch of Matter. For more information about Matter, check out the, “Build With Matter” page: https://buildwithmatter.com/

2-1 Switch (Dimmer + On/Off): Project New Horizon

Not only is this the first of its kind from a switch standpoint (switch can either be an On/Off or a Dimmer), but it’s one of the first Matter switches being developed, making it some true innovation. This will be the flagship of our Gen 3 switches and is affectionately known as the, “Maycock Signature Series” since it was Eric M’s idea to combine the On/Off & Dimmer.

Status: In Development
Project Page: New Horizon Community Page
Product Page: TBD

Auxiliary Switch: Project Golden Rule

The time has come… an auxiliary switch that matches your primary switch.

Status: In Development
Project Page: Golden Rule Community Page
Product Page: TBD

Fan Switch: Project Zephyr

A dedicated fan switch.

Status: In Development
Project Page: Zephyr Community Page
Product Page: TBD

2022 Roadmap - Detailed

2021 Roadmap

Here are the overview charts for reference:

[mamber]

@Eric_Inovelli

Anyway, we’ve had many discussions with investors and they’ve all said the same thing. Pick an area where you’re good at, stabilize and then move outward into other areas if it still makes sense. For us, that’s lighting.

I totally agree with that. It seems like you were branching out too much too early with ‘whole ecosystem’ products and your limited resources became spread to thin

@Eric_Inovelli

Our Roadmap moving forward will be focused on lighting (switches and bulbs).

I think you nailed it with the dimmers/switches. Nobody else has all the features. Keep focused on that and stay at the top. As for the bulbs…ehhhh. I don’t see much differentiation there. IMHO I would not focus (and not waste time/resources) on bulbs.

@Eric_Inovelli

If a white-label opportunity makes sense, you may see those pop up (sensors),

I would move bulbs into that category too.

[Eric_Inovelli]

@mamber

IMHO I would not focus (and not waste time/resources) on bulbs.

We have a few tricks up our sleeve here with bulbs

We’ve just been waiting to upgrade to 700 Series so we have more room on the bulb itself. Hopefully we can incorporate these same tricks on a ZigBee version.

Another thing we’ve found beneficial to creating our own bulb(s) is that there are a lot of people who want a smart switch + smart bulb combo and rather than developing switches for Hue or other bulbs, we should be able to capitalize on the market ourselves.

But, I definitely agree that switches should be the primary focus, whereas bulbs come secondary.

[flipontheradio]

If possible can your Blue series include switchable config buttons, flush or raised? I understand cost plays a major role.

[mamber]

If possible can your Blue series include switchable config buttons, flush or raised?

@Eric_Inovelli
OR… just get the manufacturer to trim them down a bit for all new models going forward. It has been one of the common criticisms that the OEM config button sticks out too much.

(some people have sanded them down and there are even some 3D-printed replacements you can buy off of Shapeways)

[flipontheradio]

Indeed, I’m the one who did it Config button interfering with paddle operation - #35 by flipontheradio - General Discussion - Inovelli Community . Sanding 25+ config buttons is a pain and 3d printing will never match injection molding. If it’s cost effective I would find it to be a nice perk. It wasn’t feasible for red series because it wasn’t part of the initial spec but with new manufacturer I figure it’s worth the ask.

[fatherdoctor]

@mamber

just trim them down a bit for all new models going forward

Yes please. Nothing like accidentally hitting the config button when I’m trying to hit the lights on the way to the john.

[Eric_Inovelli]

I think this can be arranged. I’m not sure about including an additional, “flat” config button, but we can look at a smaller one for sure.

Let me add this to the various projects for us to take a look at!

[frcastellanos]

bulbs are just fine. this retain-your-last-status feature is just brilliant.

and now that the ZigBee subject is on the table, maybe you could make a ZigBee version? it would be more budget friendly too.

[mamber]

@Eric_Inovelli

I’m not sure about including an additional, “flat” config button, but we can look at a smaller one for sure.

Yeah, I’m in favor of shorter-but-still-sticking-out-some.

I went back and read the older thread which has examples of a flush (flat) version. Personally I would not want that. I also think it would be a nightmare to sell different styles. I would like to see a change, but ultimately end up with only one style. Take a poll and go with the majority vote. 3rd-party options will still be available for the minority.

[Eric_Inovelli]

@frcastellanos

bulbs are just fine. this retain-your-last-status feature is just brilliant.

Yeah definitely – I know that’s your favorite feature lol!

The magic we want to put in the bulbs is notifications to match our switches. There’s a cool dude up in Canada (shout-out to Ross) who is part of the ASL community who mentioned that smart bulbs are very underserved in the hard-of-hearing community and currently there’s not a lot of options for notifications.

What I mean by this is given that the HOH community relies on visual cues based on certain events (ie: severe weather, doorbell rings, etc), we could make our bulbs notify them like our light switches currently do.

Seems like an easy thing to implement, but unfortunately our 500 Series is out of space and we need to upgrade to 700 Series for Z-Wave and I’m not sure at all what the space is on ZigBee/Matter.

Anyway, I think adding this feature would be an absolute game-changer.

@frcastellanos

and now that the ZigBee subject is on the table, maybe you could make a ZigBee version? it would be more budget friendly too.

Yeah definitely – just uploaded the 2022 Roadmap – there’s only two bulbs on there now, but I have a feeling we’ll be adding more.

@mamber

I also think it would be a nightmare to sell different styles.

Lol, yes.

I bet we could get the new manufacturer to print some for us to sell separately.

[frcastellanos]

if that feature (notifications) is implemented, is rather use it with the bulbs instead of using the switches.

it seems there is no local execution in mind for now

[Eric_Inovelli]

@frcastellanos

if that feature (notifications) is implemented, is rather use it with the bulbs instead of using the switches.

Yeah for sure – much easier to see!

@frcastellanos

it seems there is no local execution in mind for now

What do you mean?

[frcastellanos]

well, I’d love to have my inovelli devices running locally in smartthings but that seems out of reach (at least for now)

difference is day/night running the bulbs and switches locally.

[Eric_Inovelli]

Good news is this should be coming soon

[mamber]

@frcastellanos

there is no local execution in mind for now

@frcastellanos

I’d love to have my inovelli devices running locally in smartthings

Blame SmartThings not Inovelli My Inovelli’s run locally on Hubitat (and also on Home Assistant)

[Snell]

I know there is more demand popping up for good ZigBee switches and it looks like you will be handling it. My experience with ZigBee switches has biased me against them so I really prefer Z-Wave switches myself, but I know the requests are there.

Also good to see the motion sensing switches coming. We could use a couple more of those and I would much prefer an Inovelli model over the current GE one we have (which works… it just has very little in the way of options or smarts).

I see that the dimmer+on/off switch is only ZigBee with no follow-on Z-Wave model. I was still really hoping to replace my timer-driven bathroom fan switches with a something that does timing but can ALSO be told on/off (so a hub can have it react to humidity or motion or such).

What surprises me is that there is not more matchup represented, with ZigBee and Z-Wave models of the same general product arriving in the same quarter. I would have thought that, yes, the communication section is different but the linkage to the rest could be made to be the same.

[Courtney_Inovelli]

It’s because we are using two different manufacturers. One for zigbee and one for z-wave. Our z-wave manufacturer is still currently not allowing us to make any new products with them until our debt is fully paid off. We are hoping that will be soon, but as of now we have not broached any new projects with them as it is an automatic “no”. Hopefully once the debt situation is figured out we will be able to do all products in both lines. That is the plan, anyway.

[Snell]

As always, the honesty and openness with Inovelli is on display.

I am definitely rooting for you folks.

[Eric_Inovelli]

Building on this – we’re looking to leverage the work being done with our ZigBee manufacturer to come back to our Z-Wave one with the updated design and say, “make this, but in Z-Wave” rather than have them go through all the R&D.

Similar to what we did with our ZigBee manufacturer – luckily a lot of the leg-work had been done by our Z-Wave manufacturer that they could build upon it, rather than starting from scratch.

We are in a bit of a pickle, but we do see the light at the end of the tunnel for sure now!

Thanks @Snell for the kind words