ZigBee Resource Guide 2013 - (Page 4)
MARKET DEVELOPMENT
ZigBee Creates a Buzz in Consumer Markets
By Lisa Arrowsmith, Associate Director, Connectivity, Smart Home & Appliances • IMS Research
The past few years have brought a
number of notable developments for the
ZigBee market. Exciting technological
advancements have included the announcement of multi-protocol ZigBee
chipsets, which support both ZigBee
RF4CE and ZigBee PRO; the Green Power feature, allowing battery-less operation with ZigBee PRO; and the completion of the
ZigBee IP specification. However, significant market-focused developments have also had a major impact on the adoption of ZigBee technology. In the past few years, the use of ZigBee technology has developed far beyond commercial and industrial (C&I)
applications (such as enabling HAN communications in a smart
meter) and gained significant ground in consumer-facing applications, including home automation and consumer electronics.
More Than 1.1 Billion ZigBee ICs Set to be Shipped
According to the low-power wireless quarterly tracking and
intelligence service from IMS Research (now part of IHS, Inc.),
more than 1.1 billion ZigBee ICs (i.e., IEEE 802.15.4 ICs using the ZigBee PRO, RF4CE, or SEP2.0 network layers) will
be shipped within the next six years (2013 to 2018). Consumerfacing applications are set to drive a growing proportion of these
shipments, as shown in the figure below.
ZigBee in C&I Applications
To-date, the inclusion of HAN gateways within smart meters
has driven the majority of ZigBee adoption in C&I applications,
accounting for between 30 to 37 percent of total ZigBee chipset
shipments during the past three years. However, with US smart
meter deployments having peaked in the two years following the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the contraction in the US smart meter market seen in 2012 is forecast to continue in the near-term. However, there is still a positive outlook
for ZigBee-enabled smart meters elsewhere, with deployments
set to gain traction across the United Kingdom (where ZigBee
SE1.X is expected to be used for in-home communications), as
well as in other upcoming meter deployments. As a result of the
different roll-out rates experienced with each country’s metering
projects, annual shipments of ZigBee ICs for this application are
set to fluctuate; accounting for between 22 to 30 percent of the
ZigBee market during the coming years.
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Aside from metering, ZigBee has gained traction in other C&I
applications. While volumes deployments in actual industrial
settings (e.g., factory or process plant automation) are projected
to remain low, at under three million units cumulatively within
the next six years, further opportunities are seen in commercial
and municipal building automation projects. The first ZigBee
PRO-enabled commercial building automation devices were introduced by Siemens Building Technologies in 2005. In the past
eight years, traction has grown within the commercial building
automation market, with a number of fairly large-scale deployments, for example in the hospitality industry.
Asset tracking is another, slightly niche, C&I application to
adopt ZigBee technology. ZigBee is not utilized as the sole technology in this application, but can offer additional features when
implemented alongside other technologies, such as RFID and
cellular modules. For example, RFID and cellular modules can
be used to enable location-awareness; whereas ZigBee-enabled
environmental sensors can be implemented as part of a total asset tracking solution, to assess variables such as temperature and
communicate this to a central gateway in a warehouse, helping
to maintain the condition of a perishable asset (such as food or
medicine) through the supply chain.
Consumer-Facing Applications Driving Major Growth
Despite the adoption of ZigBee technology in a growing range
of C&I applications, it is projected to be consumer-facing applications which drive major growth. This is predominantly due to
two growing application areas: “smart home” technologies, and
consumer electronics (CE) devices.
“Smart home” solutions encompass a range of system types,
from high-end home automation systems, to “HAN” devices such
as smart thermostats which could, in the future, communicate
with consumers’ smart meters (once demand-response programs
become more widely accepted). Notably, this segment includes
the cloud-based home control systems being deployed by service
providers today, including ISPs, cable operators and security providers alike, which allow consumers to remotely control in-home
devices, ranging from HVAC controls to door locks, via web
portals and/or smartphone apps. ZigBee has gained significant
traction across all smart home system types, with support from a
range of device suppliers and service providers such as Control4,
Emerson, Comcast, Rogers and Time Warner Cable.
In the consumer electronics market, ZigBee RF4CE has started
to gain more significant traction, particularly within the set-top
box market (and the associated remote controls), as companies
seek to offer non-line-of-sight functionality, and additional features such as advanced gesture based control. Furthermore, in the
future, there is the potential for set-top boxes to be deployed with
smart home gateway functionality, as a growing number of cable
operators start to enter this market. Indicative of this growth, the
number of ZigBee RF4CE ICs shipped this year is expected to
be 60 percent higher than in 2012; with a 23 percent CAGR projected from 2013 to 2018.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ZigBee Resource Guide 2013
ZigBee Resource Guide 2013
Empowered to Control Your World
ZigBee Creates a Buzz in Consumer Markets
ZigBee Alliance Members
Resource Guide
Advertising Index
Market News
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