Apple’s revolutionary hand-held device is the new key to entertainment, control

Apple’s iPad arrived on the scene in April and instantly turned the consumer electronics world on its head. It created a brand-new product category essentially out of thin air, wowed virtually everyone who came into contact with it, and achieved astonishingly high sales numbers – 1 million units in the first month, and 3 million by the end of June.

The iPad can do many things, from Web browsing to books to video to apps to music to e-mail to gaming. And the device’s huge success has had the effect of leaving every big name in the electronics industry – from Microsoft to HP to Samsung – scrambling to come up with a tablet of their own.

But one application made possible by the device has gotten a lot of attention in the industry in the months since its release: home control. Some of the biggest names in the space – including Crestron, Control4, Sonos and more – have developed ways to use the iPad, in ways far beyond what was previously developed for iPod and iPhone use.

We’ll look one by one at those offerings. But first, let’s take a look at the iPad itself.

All About the iPad

Nearly paper-thin, weighing just 1.5 pounds and sporting a 9.7-inch screen, the iPad could best be described as a giant iPod Touch – only without the handicap of a tiny, tiny screen. It’s sort of a halfway point between an iPod Touch and a Mac computer; the iPad can’t be your only computer, but it can be an extra device used for recreation and travel.

You can use it to surf the Web, using multi-touch to zoom in and out (like on an iPhone) but also taking advantage of the bigger screen. The e-mail function also looks great and is exceptionally easy to use.

The iPad has an iTunes application that you can use for your music just like on any other computer. And even though the device lacks Flash capability, there are plenty of options for viewing video, from downloads of movies and TV episodes, to Netflix Instant Watch, to a very strong YouTube app.There’s no Hulu app yet, although one is allegedly on the way.

As an iPad user, you’ll have access to all three of Apple’s “stores”: The iTunes store, the App Store (for mobile applications and games) and the new iBooks store, which allows quick and easy book downloads. Indeed, the iPad’s full-color touch screen and multi-touch-enabled ebook presentation blows those of the Kindle and virtually every other e-reader out of the water.

The iPad is available in Wi-Fi and 3G versions, as well as in 16, 32 and 64 GB denominations. It currently ranges in price from $499 to $829.

In Complete Control

The iPad’s popularity has led the home theater, custom installation and high-end electronics retail industries to integrate the device into their products. Many manufacturers have marketed their own touch screens for home automation use, but now many of them are concentrating on using, through apps, the iPad instead, taking advantage of the device’s bigger screen.

The iPad is proving to be a handy, reliable and easy-to-use device in the control of home entertainment, lighting, security, energy usage, HVAC and other everyday uses – and it’s only going to get better in the future, as acknowledged by the home control industry.

“The iPad is revolutionizing home automation and control,” Bob Madonna, founder and CEO of home control giant Savant, told the company’s dealer conference in New York in June. This is because the device, in addition to being a technological marvel, has been explosively popular among users. This way, the industry can move home automation into the mainstream.

Here are some examples of what the industry has been doing:

• Savant

Savant Systems launched a nationwide tour in the spring to show dealers its special iPad control application. Savant had used Apple’s OS X system in its products since the company launched in 2005, giving it a “leg up” on competitors, Madonna told CustomRetailer magazine when the tour began in New York in April.

Savant’s iPad app costs $9.99. Madonna said the Wi-Fi-only iPad, along with an in-wall docking system, costs around $1,000. He praised Apple for “teaching the average person how to use a touch-panel,” which Madonna believes has “tremendous value for the CEDIA channel.” Between 800 and 900 users had downloaded the application as of June, he said.

Indeed, in June the company unveiled a pair of high-end in-home application docks, an In-Wall Charging Dock and Desktop Charging Dock.

• Crestron

Just days after the iPad was first revealed to the world, Crestron announced that the device could be used, with a simple download, as a Crestron touch-panel, piggybacking on similar apps already developed for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

In May, Apple named Crestron’s app the 31st-highest grossing iPad application, the only home control/home automation application to make the top 100.

• Control4

Control4 made its Control4 My Home application for the iPad available in April, just as the device was being released. Using the app, the iPad can control lighting, music, video, temperature, security systems, Web cameras and more in the user’s home. Additional features – including locking and unlocking doors and access to IP video cameras – will become available later this year.

Control4 president and COO Glen Mella told CustomRetailer magazine in April that he sees the iPad and other popular Apple devices as an opportunity to get users to embrace home automation, as well as to get users to realize that “these mobile devices were really cool ways to control the different systems in [their homes.]”

He added that the iPad’s larger screen gives users “more real estate to work with” than an iPhone or iPod.

Only the Beginning

The list of supported products and available apps will only continue to grow as the iPad continues to catch on among consumers in years to come.

Be on the lookout for further advancements in the area of iPad-driven home control, offering you even greater flexibility and capability in all areas of your home.