Home automation (HA) is such a nerdy, geeky hobby with a limited market potential. Only people like me (and some of you) get excited by being able to turn on my sprinklers by telephone, having a perimeter motion sensor grid that activates a "lived-in" look in the house, and making sure my garage light goes off after nobody's been there for 5 minutes. Yes, I like to do this kind of stuff. In addition to the standard modules X10 offers, you can "switch" anything. And you can control these modules and switches via wireless controllers, keychain remotes, computer interface, telephone, etc. The possibilities are endless. A geek's dream come true.
The HA stuff has been sold by every major manufacturer as some point over the past 25 or so years (Honeywell, RCA, IBM, and many other major companies have sold a private-labelled version of X10 HA stuff). Radio Shack still sells X10 stuff ("Powerhouse" brand), but not many other retailers sell it. Like I said, it is a niche market for geeks and nerds.
But being such a limited market, X10 had to branch out. Some genious had the idea to get into the wireless cameras. I guess it kinda goes along with their HA and security product lines, but the cameral stuff does not really appeal to me. Neither do their marketing tactics of late.
Great home automation products. Bad judgement with their marketing efforts as of late.