Can 100M ZigBee Fans Be Wrong? InStat Says No

ZigBee is going to take off, thanks to smart metering, according to research firm InStat.

Shipments of chips based around the 802.15.4 standard will rise to 292 million units in 2012, way up from the seven million sold in 2007. (ZigBee is based around 802.15.4) About one-third of the chips on the 802.15.4 protocol will be based around d a ZigBee stack, but that’s still nearly 100 million chips sold.

A leading driver of demand for these chips will be smart meters and sensors for home networks. With these home networks, electric meters will be able to turn down air conditioners or turn off the heater in dryers to save power.

Some of the companies promoting ZigBee include Comverge, Tendril, Freescale and Trilliant. ZigBee started gaining traction in smart metering in 2006 and 2007. (Here’s Trilliant’s Bill Vogel and others ZigBee’s rise from last summer and one of the earlier articles on this trend from 2007.) ZigBee chips can only transfer small amounts of data, but they consume very little power. Since the dryer doesn’t have much to say to the meter, you can employ a wireless ZigBee nodule powered by a battery to convert your dryer into an intelligent appliance.

It’s about time. I recall back in 2003 when Philips and others began to tout ZigBee. They formed the group after the HomeRF alliance disbanded after creative differences and customer indifference. At the time, they really didn’t know where or how it could be used. One person suggested it would be good for a wireless mouse. But since most people already had functioning wireless mice, there didn’t seem to be a huge burning need.

But the race isn’t over yet. Some companies such as GainSpan are promoting WiFi for this purpose, which is already pervasive in many areas. You could have your home WiFi basestation handle all of this communications. Powerline networking also wants to control the home. So we shall see.