Couple of interesting quotes from this article that highlights a lot of the recent discussions we've had on chat.
Especially when entering a new market, the question of what functionality to include in a product and what to leave out is critical to a timely and successful product launch. Leave out too much and the product flops. Put in more than is necessary and costs and schedule balloon.
The second sin can in fact be worse than the first because you delay engaging real customers with a real product by bloating the requirements and hence learn more slowly what is really important.
I think we are right on track with iPhone app driven development. Just to update everyone since we've been quiet for so long these will be iPhone apps for KNX and infrared control. We can quickly gauge user interest on the product and create IP based integration without additional setup. The requirements from panels and integration (and some high end functionality) will drive the controller requirements.
So we will have a layered product release strategy:
1) Panel software
Simple integration over IP to HA systems that have proven, stable, documented IP gateways.
2) Controller
Following #1, introducing integration to other I/O (serial, USB), leverage existing software like LIRC, serving generic web console interfaces, simple scheduling with a low end controller hardware.
3) Full Integration
Controller bridge between control protocols (X10, KNX, INSTEON, et al), 24x7 high availability with clustering and replication, remotely managed and dynamic software updates, diagnostics and monitoring.
We are working on #1 at the moment.
