one more try....
this is a long post about a shiny pebble by G&K standards.
i rate this one right up there with CREE.
this little company has an IP licensing and royalty model as well as some production. i have mentioned them before. i like this company because SUNW and CSCO and 200 others of the world's top companies have signed up, endorsed the companies products, and created a significant value chain.
the potential here is enormous imho for 2 other reasons. elon has very recently been announced and proclaimed the ANSI standard...that is very important...any engineer designing a building control system will either use the established standard or have the extra work and liability of justifying any deviance. physicians and other professionals will understand as they generally adhere to similar protocols.
the second reason is actually several reasons....finland has announced elon to be their standard. honeywell just announced elon to be their standard for international building control systems. lonworks is starting to be deployed in building systems around the world right now. several european appliance mfrs have started using echelon controls. to me, this clearly indicates international product acceptance.
Echelon Corporation develops, markets and supports a family of hardware and software products and services that enables original equipment manufacturers and systems integrators to design and implement open, interoperable, distributed control networks. A control network enables any group of electrical devices, called nodes, to be linked together to implement sensing, monitoring, control and communications capabilities for a variety of applications. Control networks, an alternative to the traditional approach of centralized control, offer decreased costs of installation and maintenance and the ability to implement multi-vendor systems, thereby increasing competition while providing expanded features, flexibility and functionality. The Company offers a comprehensive set of over 80 products and services marketed under the LonWorks brand name. All of the Company's products either incorporate or operate with the Neuron Chip and the LonTalk protocol.
info on the company...
echelon.com
this link is a demonstration of some residential products...leviton manufactures much of the residential controllers...to get an idea of leviton's general product line visit the electrical dept in any home depot.
demo.echelon.com
for internet connectivity coupled with automation...the best pure play i see right now is ELON
building and home automation and internet interconnectivity is projected to grow enormously over the next several years. smart appliances, smart lights, hvac systems, building security and lighting controls, etc, etc are being designed by nearly every major mfr.
from what i can see, ELON is in the middle of all of this. lonworks is the basis for appliance control by several european mfrs. honeywell has named lonworks the international building control networking standard. ANSI has named lonworks the standard for building controls. csco has named the lonworks server the key to home automation. toshiba just signed up for another 10 year license to produce the lonworks neuron chip. that is important because toshiba makes chips for a lot of japanese appliance folks like panasonic and sony. cypress semi also produces the chips. i am not sure where this production is going.
i have reviewed the ELON financials....it seems the company will leap into profitability within the next quarter or two. revenues were up 20% in the last 9 months...but they were up 33% in the last quarter. this indicates acceleration.
now here is the most unbelievable part.....current margins are 62%
i did a patent search at the US patent office....found 105 patents attributed to Echelon Corporation. hopefully that is sufficient IP protection...the partnerships being established seem to verify this.
McNealy the CEO of SUNW said this about ELON on jan 7th.
``People like to talk about everyBODY getting connected to the Internet, but actually, the bigger market is getting everyTHING connected to the Internet,' said McNealy. ``Everything with a digital electrical heartbeat is going to be connected to the Internet. By bringing everyday devices to the Internet, Echelon's LONWORKS system is central to making this happen.'
The LONWORKS network in Sun's ``.com Home' exhibit includes a networked CeTeLaB AB door bell/door chime, an electronic door lock powered by an Echelon LonPoint© module, and a Jini proxy based on Echelon's LNS(TM) network operating system. These technologies work together to bring convenience to life.
important...read this...about 2 months old but may i suggest read it all...i am including a clip to whet your appetite.
biz.yahoo.com
clip....
``On November 30th, Echelon, along with keynote speakers Judy Estrin, chief technology officer and senior vice president, Cisco Systems, and Bill Joy, chief scientist and co-founder, Sun Microsystems, held an industry briefing for leading members of the Internet, press, and financial communities. The briefing described how connected LONWORKS devices will drive the next wave of Internet innovation and wealth creation and how Echelon is Bringing the Internet to Life(TM).
and then read this...
Monday January 31, 3:13 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Industry Leaders Demonstrate Commitment to LonMark Products and Echelon Technology
LonMark Interoperability Association Welcomes New Members to Prestigious Roster
PALO ALTO, Calif--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 2000-- Reflecting the momentum and industry acceptance oF LonMark© products, the LonMark Interoperability Association is pleased to announce that 14 new companies, including the Ingersoll-Rand Company, Kone Corporation, and several network integrators joined its membership roster in Q499.
These new companies enter the ranks of over 200 existing Association members that represent a virtual ``who's who' in the worlds of building, factory, home and transportation automation. Working together, Association members are driving the widespread use of open, interoperable control systems across industries and across the globe using Echelon©'s (Nasdaq:ELON - news) LonWorks© networks, the leading system for networking everyday devices.
``The LonMark Association is a dynamic and vital organization whose fast growth mirrors the explosion in the adoption of Echelon's LonWorks networking technology,' says Paula Skokowski, Executive Director of the Association. ``The Association represents a unique group where competing companies actually work cooperatively to ensure that their respective products can interoperate. With the wide variety of industries and applications represented by its members, the Association continues to set the standard for open systems across industries. The fact that a number of our new members are system integrators is strong validation that the demand for open multi-vendor networks is growing around the world and that LonMark is considered a premiere brand.'
``Joining the LonMark Association represents a first step toward interoperable Safety and Security products being developed by Ingersoll-Rand,' says Renate Bowerbank, Ingersoll-Rand's North America Development Engineering Manager.
The new LonMark members represent a wide array of industries. For example, US-based Ingersoll Rand is a major diversified manufacturer of industrial and commercial equipment and components, serving a broad range of markets worldwide. A member of the Fortune 500, Ingersoll-Rand includes among its many brands such well-known and respected names as Bobcat, Club Car, Dor-O-Matic, Ecoair, Locknetics, Schlage, Steelcraft, and Thermo King. Finland's Kone is one of the world's leading suppliers of elevators, escalators and services. San Francisco Municipal Railway (USA) joins a number of key equipment suppliers to the transportation industry in specifying LonMark products for rail transit applications in North America. Additional new Association members are: Baker Building Automation (USA); Bisset Automation (Australia); CIAC (France); CAN Engineers (Singapore); Drucegrove (UK); Havel Brothers (USA); Lochinvar (USA); M&C Engineering (Singapore); Semco Danmark (Denmark); Telda Electronics (Korea); and Zdania (Poland).
LonMark membership is open to any company, organization or individual committed to the development, manufacturing, and use of interoperable LonWorks products and networks. A complete listing of available LonMark products and successful LonMark installations around the world is available on-line at www.lonmark.org.
THE LonMark INTEROPERABILITY ASSOCIATION
Since its inception in 1994, the LonMark Interoperability Association has become a major driving force in the establishment of interoperable guidelines for building, industrial, transportation and residential/utility automation. LonMark membership is open to any manufacturer, end-user and system integrator committed to the development and use of open, interoperable products using multi-vendor LonWorks control networks.
Products that have been verified to conform to Echelon's LonMark interoperability guidelines are eligible to carry the LonMark logo, an indicator that a product has been designed to interoperate over a LonWorks network.
unclewest |
