BOSTON-A new report finds that ZigBee technology players are squaring off against Zen Systems, which has established a strong position in the residential control market with its proprietary Z-Wave solution.
Strategy Analytics, a global research and consulting company, predicted that by 2008, the market for wireless mesh networking chips will reach tens of millions of units per year, and that the range of applications will include residential control, industrial monitoring and asset management.
“The simplicity of Z-Wave has allowed Zensys to get chips to market and partner with the leading makers of residential control systems, such as Danfoss and Honeywell, well ahead of ZigBee,” said Chris Taylor, director of the RF & Wireless component service at Strategy Analytics. “Zensys, a privately held firm, counts Intel Capital among its investors, which raises the prospect of Z-Wave becoming a de-facto home control standard in PCs and notebook computers, as well as a range of consumer electronics devices.
“We believe that the competition among Z-Wave, ZigBee and similar mesh networking schemes will lead to lower chip and system prices, which will stimulate the rapid adoption of wireless mesh networking.”
