News

ZigBee Alliance Announces 27 New Member Companies (20/5/2004)

Ember Corporation Elevated to "Promoter" Level Membership; Joins Honeywell, Invensys, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola, Philips and Samsung on ZigBee Alliance Board of Directors

The ZigBee(TM) Alliance, an association of companies working together to enable wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard, today announced 27 new member companies, bringing its total membership to more than 70 companies. The new member companies include: ADCUS, Inc.; Airbee Wireless; American Power Conversion; Atalum, SA; Brunelco Electronic Engineering BV; CCL/ITRI; Daintree Networks, Inc.; Frontline Test Equipment, Inc.; Galeha; Grundfos Management; Insta Elektro GmbH; Institute for Information Industry; Jennic Limited; Korwin; LG Electronics, Inc.; NEC Engineering Ltd.; OTSL, Inc.; Polaris Networks; Renesas Technology Corporation; Rincon Research Corporation; Sensicast Systems, Inc.; Siemens Building Automation; Silicon Wave, Inc.; STMicroelectronics; Telecom Italia; TUV Rheinland; and VIA Networking Technologies, Inc. The ZigBee Alliance also announced that current member, Ember Corporation, has upgraded its membership status to the "Promoter" level. This new position gives Ember a seat on the ZigBee board of directors along with Honeywell, Invensys, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola, Philips and Samsung, and enables the company to contribute to the development of a successful standard and participate in decision-making in ZigBee Alliance activities.

The member companies of the Alliance, which represent a broad spectrum of industries, are working to help shape the wireless market by defining the specification, collaborating on new standards-based technology for monitoring, automation and control products, and leveraging their collective worldwide market presence to bring a new reliable, low-cost, low-power wireless communication solution to the market. The addition of these new members, which doubles the Alliance's original membership, demonstrates the worldwide interest in the ZigBee specification and expands the pool of potential applications that will result from their implementations of the new technology.

"The ZigBee Alliance is thrilled to have so many leading companies from around the world and from across a range of market segments bring their expertise to the Alliance," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "The growth rate of our membership has exceeded our initial expectations, and clearly shows the increasing market support for the technology. Our members have the unique opportunity to contribute to the initial specification of the ZigBee technology, which we expect to ratify later this year, as well as to influence the organization's leadership and broaden our reach."

"We expect a diversity of wireless connectivity options to be deployed over the next few years based on speed, range, cost, complexity, etc., as application- and device-specific needs proliferate," said Jack Gold, vice president, META Group. "Wireless optimized for specific tasks, such as the ZigBee technology, will offer the best cost, power and speed benefits for a myriad of new devices coming to market in the next two to three years for home automation, sensor networks and industrial controls. Acceptance of a single standard, as promoted through the ZigBee Alliance, means accelerated adoption with maximum cross-vendor device compatibility, which is a prerequisite if ZigBee is to achieve its promise of very low cost wireless connectivity for a variety of intelligent devices."

ZigBee is the only standards-based technology designed to address the unique needs of low-cost, low-power, wireless sensor networks for remote monitoring, home control, and building automation network applications in the industrial and consumer markets. In a recent study by West Technology Research Solutions L.L.C. (WTRS), analysts estimate that in the not too distant future, it will be common to find as many as 100 ZigBee chips around the house and devices ranging from light switches to home security systems to landscaping control.

Leading companies who want to have input on developing the ZigBee specification and create ZigBee products can join by visiting http://www.zigbee.org/join/. The Alliance will hold an Open House Wednesday, May 19th, 2004 in Seattle during its quarterly member meeting. During the Open House, an overview and progress update of the ZigBee specification will be presented. Additionally, there will be 12 demonstrations showcasing 802.15.4 and ZigBee-ready solutions. Questions from prospective members about the Alliance will also be addressed at that time.

www.zigbee.com