Bob Karchnia, Emerson Process Management's Vice President of Technology, told me, "We are pleased that we are shipping ahead of forecast. Obviously I am not going to tell you how many we've shipped. But we are on track to ship more wireless this year than the entire wireless market size last year."
They've still not released the Model 775 HART wireless adaptor (the HART Thumb, as it is affectionately known, because of its shape) and they've not yet set a price on it.
However, you can bet that Emerson, who has been doing corporate pricing strategy longer than most other companies, will have the price down to exactly what they can expect to get before they can get it built and the HART Wireless standard is released.
Now what this means for end users, around the world, is that now wireless, especially hardened for the industrial end user market, is real. End users can purchase a starter pack designed to get their feet wet, and they can add to the systems as they go along. End users can now start thinking about the new things they can do with wireless sensors.
