The Z-Wave Alliance has announced availability of five Z-Wave-based iPhone apps which can be downloaded from the Apple (News - Alert) App Store. The apps are from Homemanageables, HomeSeer, iControl Networks, Schlage and Xanboo. The Z-Wave Alliance is an open consortium of global companies which build home control products based on Z-Wave wireless technology.

“Mobile home control is a natural extension of wireless home control, so it’s not a surprise that so many Z-Wave Alliance members are churning out mobile apps,” said Raoul Wijgergangs, chairman of the Z-Wave Alliance, in a release. “We’ve had members offering mobile home control for years and the App Store just made it really easy for consumers and is helping Z-Wave break further into the mainstream.”

The apps include Homemanageables’s iPhone (News - Alert) app which allows customers to remotely manage their homes using Z-Wave-based wireless home control and monitoring systems. HomeSeer’s HSTouch system will allow iPhone users to fully customize their iPhone/iPod Touch screens with their own graphics and designs.

iControl’s iPhone app for its ConnectedLife broadband home management solution helps end users to arm and disarm their security systems, see live video and event-driven video clips or pictures and also adjust lighting and thermostat settings.

Schlage has introduced a free iPhone app for its Z-Wave-based Schlage LiNK system. The LiNK iPhone app allows home owners to remotely monitor and control access to their homes through doors equipped with Schlage wireless locks, manage heating and cooling with the Trane (News - Alert) Remote Energy Management Thermostat and control other Z-Wave enabled devices, said Z-Wave sources.

Xanboo’s iPhone app helps users to log in and control all their devices including the Z-Wave controls. The devices can work together like when the front door opens the Z-Wave lamp will turn on, a camera will take video clips and will email it to the end user. Xanboo enables interaction between Z-Wave devices and those of Honeywell (News - Alert) and DSC security systems.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg with regard to the number of Z-Wave mobile apps we expect to be available in the near future,” added Mary Miller, director of marketing for Sigma Designs (News - Alert), the developer of Z-Wave. “The iPhone paved the way, but Android development is fierce and its open source foundation makes it a natural fit for mobile home control and Z-Wave.”

Another Z-Wave iPhone app that will be launched this year is 4Home which will allow retail and service provider partners to deploy any Home Control Services Platform to consumers. Access to live video and recordings from IP cameras, control of all Z-Wave devices in the home, and smart management of the home’s energy consumption will all be available remotely via the iPhone, according to Z-Wave sources.

Learn more about M2M technology at the M2M Summit, an event collocated with ITEXPO East 2010, to be held Jan. 20 to 22 in Miami. This is the event you need to attend if you want to understand the role that IP communications technologies will play in the blossoming M2M market. Register now.