X10 Wireless Technology, Inc. is an American subsidiary of a Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

-Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

 company best known for marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 wireless video camera

Camcorder

A camcorder is an electronic device that combines a video camera and a video recorder into one unit. Equipment manufacturers do not seem to have strict guidelines for the term usage...

s using controversial pop-under advertisements

Pop-up ad

Pop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. Pop-ups are generally new web browser windows to display advertisements...

. It was founded in 1999 in Kent, Washington

Kent, Washington

Kent is a city located in King County, Washington, United States, and is the third largest city in King County and the sixth largest in the state. An outlying suburb of Seattle, Kent is also the corporate home for companies such as REI and Oberto Sausage...

.

History

X10 sprang from a small engineering company in Scotland called Pico Electronics, Ltd. in 1974. Pico now fits under the umbrella of X10 Ltd. X10 was a founding member of the Home Automation and Networking Association.

In the latter 1970s, X-10 products were introduced in the US through hobbyist catalogue sales. Radio Shack broadened the market to the American public in 1978. Soon after, Sears, Roebuck and other companies joined the market with X-10 and other branded products.

In 1989, X10 introduced a self-installed wireless security system, the SS5400.

In 1995, X10 set up ORCA Monitoring Services in Seattle, Washington to handle the monitoring of their security systems.

X10's website went live on the web at x10.com on 26 December 1996, becoming one of the first aggressive internet marketers.

Under the One-For-All brand, X10 started manufacturing universal remotes for Universal Electronics, Inc. (UEI) in 1998. The operation grew so large that soon X10 was manufacturing 1 million remotes per month. X10 now makes remotes for many original equipment manufacturers, including Philips

Philips

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

, and is recognised for its infrared

Infrared

Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...

(IR) code library. This makes X10 one of the largest manufacturers of universal remotes in the world.