ZigBee ready to take off
The supply chain and broad industry support required to deliver ZigBee is now in place and will enable the market to quickly reach large volumes.
Leading semiconductor analyst Future Horizons believes that the supply chain and broad industry support required to deliver ZigBee is now in place and will enable the market to quickly reach large volumes. Future Horizons' 'Semiconductor applications market report 2006' reports that ZigBee volumes are expected to reach 50 million units by the end 2006 and that unit shipments will accelerate to 750 million units per annum by 2010. ZigBee is a cable replacement technology that will enable homeowners to install wireless light switches, thermostats and security systems for tens of dollars rather than thousands.
Future Horizons reports that ZigBee technology is now appearing as silicon and these chipsets target the low-power low-datarate part of the data network market.
Manufacturers are targeting the substantial domestic heating and lighting control market, as well as consumer equipment control, medical monitoring and industrial sensor applications.
'In order for this emerging market to grow fast the technology needs widespread industry support'.
'ZigBee already has a wide variety of semiconductor, module and software sources to make very high growth to be possible', said Chris Ryan, semiconductor market Analyst, Future Horizons.
The ZigBee market is one of 26 market applications explored, and quantified, in Future Horizons' 'Semiconductor applications market report 2006'.
