Linear execs: 2GIG still innovating

2GIG is still innovating. That's the message I got yesterday from a briefing with Bruce Ehlers, SVP engineering for Linear, and Mike O'Neal, Linear president. It's also working with some providers it did not work with previously. The 2GIG panel has historically worked with alarm.com software. Ehlers and O'Neal emphasized that it still works with alarm.com, but it now also will work with iControl, Telular and Uplink.

"We are not walking away from alarm.com. We have a strong relationship with alarm.com. But, we're now providing an alternative [for dealers] who want an alternative," O'Neal said.

You'll remember that Linear's parent company, Nortek, aquired 2GIG in February. Here's that story. Linear and 2GIG's relationship goes back to 2007, however, when the companies began working together to develop the Go!Control panel. Once it was developed, Linear manufactured the panel, and it continues to manufacture it today.

2GIG and summer-model giant Vivint have always been separate companies, but they had the same owners until the Nortek acquisition in February. Now, "Linear and 2GIG are one and VIvint is a customer, one that we intend to support for a long time, but a customer," Ehlers said.

One of the benefits of the acquisition, Ehlers said, is that there was a perception previously that dealers who bought the 2GIG product were buying a Vivint product. The perception is going away, particularly as Linear continues to develop new feature sets for the panel and to develop new partnerships, Ehlers said.

O'Neal said there was some concern six months ago that "somehow Linear would pull the 2GIG product in and rest on our laurels of the past. But what you're seeing now is that we're taking the product further. In the next six to 12 months you'll see more innovation than what you've seen in the past. Bruce and his team are taking the historical product well beyond where it has been."

"Linear is investing in the innovation that was the hallmark of VIvint and 2GIG in the past. We're not taking our foot off the pedal," O'Neal said.

The acquisition and separation from Vivint "is opening up a pent-up demand for 2GIG," he said. More dealers are signing up and non-Vivint sales of the 2GIG panel are 30 percent ahead of where they were one year ago, according to O'Neal. The company is also recruiting 50 engineers to work on this and other Linear products, he said.