ZigBee Alliance Celebrates 10 Years: Delivering The Internet Of Things And Energy Management And Efficiency

SAN RAMON, Calif., Oct. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The ZigBee® Alliance celebrates its first decade of successes this month, most notably in enabling the growing machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) trends and providing utilities and energy service providers with new consumer energy management and efficiency capabilities. Hundreds of manufacturers have shipped hundreds of millions of ZigBee products for a variety of energy management, commercial and consumer applications, helping consumers and businesses alike gain greater control of their worlds.

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The ZigBee Alliance is now a thriving global ecosystem of 400+ companies developing standards and producing products for use in commercial building automation, consumer electronics, health care and fitness, home automation, energy management, retail management, wireless telecommunications. The Alliance was established in October 2002 to create global standards to connect the widest range of devices into secure, low-cost, low-power and easy-to-use wireless sensor and control networks. Today, nine innovative and interoperable standards let product manufacturers' help their customers gain greater control of, and even improve, their everyday activities.

"ZigBee was purposefully designed to address capabilities not supported by other wireless technologies and continues to be the only standard capable of securely, economically and efficiently connecting thousands of electrical switches, lights, door locks, thermostats, cable set-top-boxes and a myriad of other devices, seamlessly into an Internet of Things," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "The ZigBee Alliance remains focused on M2M and IoT market needs for wireless control and sensor networks. Our standards are the smartest choice for manufacturers and service providers in 11 vertical markets. Both market adoption and market forecasts show the ZigBee standards approach for control is proven and demand continues to increase."

Market Leadership
The Alliance reached the 600 ZigBee Certified product milestone this month, providing the most diverse selection of interoperable products for lighting, energy management, home automation, health care, consumer electronics, commercial building and telecommunications. The Alliance developed the ZigBee Certified program to ensure that the ZigBee value chain is as reliable as a ZigBee network.

"The ZigBee Alliance took a visionary approach of identifying not only a technology need, but also application needs," said Mareca Hatler, director of research with ON World. "Thanks to its leadership in the Smart Grid, smart homes and several other areas, many markets have products available today to meet industry demands and tools to create an efficient Internet of Things."

Smart metering equipment is expected to lead market growth; the European Union, United Kingdom, Australia and other countries and U.S. states, like California, have set smart meter and home automation deployment targets for utilities. ZigBee Smart Energy™ is the first and only available Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Home Area Network (HAN) standard and is playing a key role to help utilities meet these mandates. Global revenues for wireless and wired home energy management equipment and services will reach $4.3 billion in 2016, according to a recent ON World report, and ZigBee equipment will capture almost half of that projected revenue.

Additionally, the market for two-way communications between consumer electronics is also expected to grow. With annual ZigBee device shipments projected to reach more than 350 million by 2016, according to ABI Research.

Innovative, Application-Specific Standards
While ZigBee Smart Energy and ZigBee Home Automation are the Alliance's most celebrated and adopted application standards, as of today, the Alliance has developed a total of nine innovative application standards that deliver advanced control and security capabilities along with expected product interoperability over the time proven ZigBee mesh network. Each standard addresses specific market needs of businesses and consumers, simplifying use by manufacturers and allowing for further product customization. Industry experts design each standard through a rigorous quality-focused process. All of the 600 ZigBee Certified products are based on ZigBee specifications and standards:

• ZigBee Building Automation
• ZigBee Health Care
• ZigBee Home Automation
• ZigBee Input Device
• ZigBee Light Link
• ZigBee Network Devices
• ZigBee Remote Control
• ZigBee Smart Energy
• ZigBee Telecom Services

ZigBee is more than an innovative technology. The ZigBee Alliance supports and promotes a thriving global ecosystem of ZigBee members who ensure a vital ZigBee development pipeline and value chain on which manufacturers and consumers can rely to meet their expanding IoT needs.

Timeline

2002 – ZigBee Alliance established with 25 members
2004 – ZigBee 2004 specification introduced, ends year with 124 members
2005 – Add Adopter membership level; ends year with 200 members
2006 – First ZigBee products begin to launch; ZigBee 2006 specification introduced
2007 – ZigBee 2007 specification introduced with popular ZigBee PRO feature set; ZigBee Home Automation completed; ends year with 250 members
2008 – ZigBee Smart Energy launched; First ZigBee Certified products enter market; ends year with 300 members
2009 – ZigBee RF4CE specification introduced; ZigBee Health Care and ZigBee Remote Control completed
2010 – ZigBee Telecom Services completed; 100 ZigBee Certified products; ends year with 400 members
2011 – 300 ZigBee Certified products; ZigBee Input Device, ZigBee Building Automation, ZigBee Gateway, completed.
2012 – ZigBee Light Link completed; ZigBee 2012 specification featuring ZigBee Green Power introduced; 600 ZigBee Certified products; 10th anniversary

10^th Anniversary infographic available at www.zigbee.org/anniversary

ZigBee: Control your world
ZigBee offers green and global wireless standards connecting the widest range of devices to work together intelligently and help you control your world. The ZigBee Alliance is an open, non- profit association of approximately 400 members driving development of innovative, reliable and easy-to-use ZigBee standards. The Alliance promotes worldwide adoption of ZigBee as the leading wirelessly networked, sensing and control standard for use in consumer, commercial and industrial areas. For more information, visit: www.ZigBee.org.

SOURCE ZigBee Alliance