If you're a LabView user, you know that National Instruments does a great job making this product as flexible and easy to use as possible. If you're not familiar, LabView is National Instruments' test, control, and instrumentation programming environment.

Today, NI made an announcement that made me scratch my head. They announced a family of wireless sensor products, based on ZigBee. Now I'm not saying that the nodes, routers, and gateways aren't good products. In fact, they appear to be built to the same high quality standards as other NI products. Powered by batteries, they can be deployed in the field without having to replace the batteries for up to three years.

What I find strange about this announcement is the competitive landscape that NI now finds itself a part of. LabView and other NI products often dominate the product categories they fit into. These wireless products, on the other hand, fit into a category that already is filled with aggressive competitors.

Where NI has a competitive advantage here is that the sensor products can be programmed using, what else—LabView. So there is somewhat of an installed user base. But that base likely isn't large enough to sustain a wireless business for NI, knowing the price points that NI is expecting to hit with these products.