ON World

Smart Home WSN Chipset Market to Increase 1400% in 5 Years

Based on interviews and surveys with over 900 individuals -- including consumers, utilities, home service providers, vendors and suppliers---
ON World’s recently published report analyzes the growing market for Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN), 802.15.4/ZigBee and competing alternatives.

San Diego, CA , Oct. 17, 2012—  Opportunities for Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN) continue to expand and Smart Home offerings have become the focal point, according to global technology research firm ON World.

"Cloud services, smart mobile technologies and wireless sensing and control solutions have filled in the missing pieces for the vision of the Internet of Things," says Mareca Hatler, ON World's research director.


Smart Home/Media Center Convergence

In 2016, global WSN chipset shipments for home automation and entertainment will reach 400 million, an increase of 1380% from 2011. Smart home and media center applications will make up 63% of 802.15.4 chipset shipments and 34% of the 802.15.4 module revenues at this time.

This year, ZigBee RF4CE shipments will increase by over 250% as cable operators such as Comcast ramp up their Smart Home offerings that combine entertainment with home management solutions for energy, security, lighting and other controls. GreenPeak's dual protocol controller that supports both RF4CE and ZigBee PRO on the same chipset reduces the cost of adding Smart Home applications to remote control products such as set-top boxes, gateways and controllers.

Smart Energy Innovations

Smart Energy continues to be a fertile innovation area from Accent's highly integrated and customizable 802.15.4g/ZigBee/PLC chipsets to Greenvity's hybrid system-on-a-chip that combines ZigBee and HomePlug Green PHY.
In 2011, 41% of the shipped 802.15.4 chipsets used the ZigBee Smart Energy profile.

Low power WiFi is another growing Smart Energy technology with an increasing number of established companies (e.g. Microchip and Qualcomm Atheros) challenging startups such as GainSpan.

Completion of the IEEE 802.15.4g physical layer for Smart Utility Networks and the IEEE 802.15.4e MAC specifications along with the IETF's IP sensor network standards such as 6LoWPAN, RPL and CoAP give developers a range of frequencies, bandwidths, and IP communications options.
For example, 802.15.4g is being proposed to be used with the upcoming ZigBee IP and ZigBee Smart Energy 2 (SEP 2) with Japan's IP based Smart Home specification ECHONET Lite at the designated 920 MHz band for low power radio systems.


Intelligent Lighting Solutions

Intelligent lighting will be one of the fastest growing WSN markets over the next decade. NXP's low power silicon and 6LoWPAN stack targets millions of IP addressable light bulbs with partners such as Belkin, GreenWave, Leedarson and TCP. The soon to be completed ZigBee Light Link provides standards based LED lighting controls and ZigBee Green Power will support wireless sensing devices that are powered with harvested energy.

Although 802.15.4 has the largest share of WSN markets, there are growing threats such as low power variants of Bluetooth and WiFi. Also, there are nearly two dozen 802.15.4 chipset suppliers that are disrupting the market leaders with vertically integrated solutions. In fact, the top three 802.15.4 suppliers lost market share in 2011 and this trend is continuing.

Based on over 900 surveys and interviews with end users, vendors and suppliers in collaboration with several industry alliances (e.g. Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-Wave, EnOcean and IPSO), ON World's report, "802.15.4 & ZigBee: Expanding Markets, Increasing Threats," analyzes the global market opportunity for IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee as well as competing alternatives such as WiFi, Bluetooth Low Energy, Z-Wave, EnOcean and others.

The report synopsis and a free executive summary is available from: http://www.onworld.com/zigbee

About ON World:
ON World provides global business intelligence on smart technology markets. Our research reports and information services are sold to Fortune 1000 companies, startups, and investors worldwide. http://www.onworld.com

Media Contact:
Mary E. Purvis
email: purvis at onworld.com
ph: 858-259-2397

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