We don't usually do this, but…

It is, I believe, time to take notice of the market for small, battery operated data loggers. Why? Because this is the same market that ISA SP100.14 is expecting to make wireless. How big is this market?
It is big!
Here is a press release from Onset Computer Corporation, which, to the best of my knowledge isn’t even the biggest of the “podlogger” vendors.The numbers in the release tell it all:
Milestone Marked By Equipment Presentation To Ameresco, Inc.
BOURNE, MA, May 17, 2006 – Onset Computer Corporation, a leading supplier
of battery-powered data loggers, today announced that the company has
shipped its one-millionth HOBO® data logger. The data logger was
purchased by Ameresco, the largest independent, comprehensive energy
solutions provider in North America, and presented to Ameresco’s president
and chief executive officer, George P. Sakellaris, at the company’s
Framingham, MA, headquarters.
“Building our millionth HOBO data logger represents an important milestone
for our company,” said Jack Sample, president of Onset. “It demonstrates
our solid commitment to delivering reliable, affordable data logging
solutions – our sole business focus for 25 years – and is a testament to
the high level of trust and confidence people have in the HOBO name.”
A data logger is an electronic instrument that records measurements of
temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, on/off and open/closed
state changes, voltage and events over extended periods of time. Most data
loggers interface with a personal computer and utilize software to
activate the logger and view/analyze the collected data. Customers like
Ameresco have used HOBO data loggers effectively to monitor building
performance and sustain energy-efficiency solutions for their customers.
“We congratulate Onset Computer Corporation on this exciting milestone and
appreciate their success in providing quality, reliable data monitoring
equipment,“ said George P. Sakellaris, founder and CEO of Ameresco. “The
HOBO data logger has been one of the data monitoring elements responsible
for helping Ameresco’s customers achieve accurate, sustainable and
well-managed energy efficiency solutions, and Ameresco is pleased to
receive the honor of the one-millionth data logging device from Onset.”
ABOUT ONSET
Onset Computer Corporation has been producing small, inexpensive,
battery-powered data loggers and embedded controllers since 1981, and has
sold over 1,000,000 loggers that are used throughout the world by over
50,000 customers. The company manufactures a broad range of data logger
and weather station products that are used to measure temperature,
humidity, light intensity, voltage, and a broad range of other parameters.
Onset products are used in a wide range of research, commercial,
industrial, and educational applications. For more information about
Onset, please visit www.onsetcomp.com.
ABOUT AMERESCO
With 50 offices throughout the United States and Canada, Ameresco, Inc. is
North America’s premier energy services and renewable resources provider.
Ameresco’s innovative strategies and customer-tailored solutions enable
Ameresco to provide customers with a broad range of offerings in renewable
energy, energy efficiency, infrastructure renewal, landfill gas, water
conservation, and natural gas and electricity supply. Ameresco helps
government agencies, schools, hospitals, colleges and universities,
utilities, public housing authorities, social housing, and commercial and
industrial customers reduce operating expenses, increase energy
reliability, and enhance the environment. For more information on
Ameresco, visit the web site at www.ameresco.com.

And here’s the point: if the vendors keep arguing among themselves about wireless standards, it is likely that people will continue to buy podloggers like Onset’s, and just go out and pull them off and take the data off without wireless. There won’t be a market for wireless until there is a standard. This isn’t me talking, it is the end users I’ve spoken with who are saying that.