Millestone Hawk-i Mobile App Examined

Published May 23, 2011 00:00 AM
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A new iPhone application supporting Milestone's VMSes, named Hawk-i [link no longer available], has been released. While many affordable options exist for surveillance apps generally, until now the only apps supporting Milestone's VMS were extremely expensive. This had placed Milestone, one of the most frequently cited VMS providers, at a competitive disadvantage. In this note, we examine the positioning of Hawk-i and contrast it to LexTechs Labs [link no longer available], the most commonly used Milestone mobile solution.

Hawk-i Overview

Here are key points about the Hawk-i mobile application:

LexTech Labs Contrast

Here are key points about LexTech Labs mobile offerings for VMS systems (such as Milestone):

  • Offers 2 versions: a single user optimized offering called iRa Pro [link no longer available] and the team oriented C3 [link no longer available]
  • Both versions are similarly expensive: iRa Pro is $899 per client license; C3 is $900 per user or $250 per camera (selectable by client)
  • Both offerings support all paid Milestone versions including Corporate
  • The C3 offering includes additional 'team' features - central management, no need to setup users or cameras on individual devices, web browser support, ease of access for outsiders/police, additional platforms such as BlackBerry

Positioning Review

A number of key advantages stand out for both offerings:

  • LexTech: Milestone Corporate support, BlackBerry support, centralized management and sharing access via web browser
  • Hawk-i: Same core live and recorded video access at ~90% less cost

As such, we would expect Hawk-i to be an attractive option for small to medium size Milestone deployments that only need a few mobile clients and want to save thousands vs LexTech. By contrast, larger operations (such as campuses) who need dozens of mobile operators and want to facilitate sharing with third parties, are more likely to be willing to spend the significant premium on LexTech.

For Milestone, while many VMS vendors are now providing mobile apps for free, we believe Hawk-i will significantly reduce the competitive disadvantage their mobile offering had previously.