ZigBee Alliance Reaches Ten Year Milestone

The ZigBee Alliance has been in existence for 10 years and now boasts more than 400 companies. The ZigBee Alliance refers to electronics products that adhere to the ZigBee standard for machine-to-machine communication. These products include items manufactured for use in building automation, wireless telecommunications, energy management, retail management, consumer electronics and healthcare or fitness. 

The ZigBee Alliance was established in 2002, with standards for low cost, low power, and easy to use devices. The products adhering to the Zigbee standard do not require a central control mechanism, as any product within the network may become a control center.  ZigBee devices are engineered to work without human intervention over long periods of time. Wireless control and monitoring are also integrated into these products.  The Alliance presently includes over 600 types of ZigBee Certified products and is expected to number more than 350 million individual products by 2016.

The most popular form of Zigbee Certified products at the moment are smart metering devices employed by utility companies throughout the United States, European Union and Australia. The rising environmental standards in these regions for high energy systems are expected to generate considerable consumer interest in these devices. 

The ZigBee Alliance is more than a platform for technological innovation; it is intended to foster an international framework in which M2M and Internet of Things (IoT) device manufacturers can utilize in their product pipelines. The Alliance remains a not-for-profit and open association that serves to extend ZigBee standards across industries.