Exclusive product availability, proprietary technology and an energetic response to customer feedback provide Smarthome Direct with the keys to successful growth

By Matt Griffin

At first, Kapur notes, the company focused on supplementing its existing product line, developing and manufacturing items that supported the existing X-10 home automation protocol or made X-10-based products better. For example, since the X-10 protocol uses household wiring to communicate between devices, Smarthome developed products to boost X-10 signal strength. But as the Smarthome customer base shifted from automation hobbyists to home improvement do-it-yourself (DIY) types, customers became frustrated with the unreliability of X-10. Most of the time it would work, but sometimes it wouldn’t.