ZIMO was founded in 1977 as a company driven by innovation and development, and will continue to maintain this fundamental orientation in the long term. Decisive for all development steps in the past and in the future has always been a "vision of the future" of model railway control, which goes beyond the generally usual expectations - both in many product details and especially in an independent principle of model railway operation, which is oriented to the operation of the real railway to a greater extent than usual.
In the course of time (from 1977 to the present), this "vision of the future" has been associated with various catchphrases: "Identity and position-based control" (from the 1977 patent specification), "signal-dependent train control", "HLU", "East-West", continuous and inductive train control technology (as it is called in real operation), and finally "ETCS" (described in the ZIMO patent of 2022), i.e. the European Train Control System in model railway design, based on the model of the real railway.
However, this "visionary level" alone did not and still does not explain the market success of ZIMO model railway controllers and decoders. The non-visionary level was and is just as important: among the features that model railroaders particularly appreciate are the motor control (considered unsurpassed), the good digital sound, the "StayAlive" solutions, the attractive user interfaces or the powerful central units. All these aspects (visionary and non-visionary) together have made ZIMO one of the world's leading manufacturers of model railway electronics.
The "vision of the future" or the "visionary level", which is implemented today in the "ZIMO Specials", can be found in every ZIMO product, especially in every decoder supplied to the model railway industry - it is supplied virtually free of charge and is often not even mentioned. However, ZIMO decoders are fully interoperable with third-party products, i.e. ZIMO decoders can be used with third-party systems of any origin, in particular with the digital command stations and control units of our competitors - but of course only within the capabilities of these third-party systems. Conversely, ZIMO digital systems can also control all third party decoders, but of course only within the capabilities of these third party decoders.
Within the product area "system" (formed by digital command station, controllers including apps, modules - decoders are not part of the system in this sense), interoperability with third-party devices is not the focus of ZIMO, although there are selected cases where it is given and maintained. In general, however, the components of the digital system are designed to "keep to themselves". Otherwise, the limitations of the "weakest link" (i.e. the third-party product) would inevitably limit the functionality of the overall system.
However, one challenge of the product strategy outlined above is that (almost) all system components and all types of decoders must be developed and produced in-house (or at least by partners), and no development capacity can be saved by relying on third-party products, as third-party products often mean a loss of functionality. Ultimately, however, this situation also benefits ZIMO users.
One thing you will NOT find in ZIMO publications, incidentally, is slogans like "Just drive", "Plug & play", "All simple" (these are all very often found in third-party products). ZIMO's focus lies elsewhere - but commissioning is not as "complicated" as is often claimed...