Date: 06/12/2011

802.15.4 (ZigBee) Semiconductor revenues to surpass $1 Billion in 2015, as per In-Stat

In-Stat in its latest study on ZigBee semiconductor market, it has forecasted revenues for 802.15.4 will likely surpass $1 billion in 2015 with over 71% coming from the smart grid/automated meter reading market. ZigBee is an open standard technology that runs on the 802.15.4 radio standard (PHY) and MAC. The technology is low-cost, low power, self-healing, and scalable, and it offers mesh technology and application profiles for home automation, smart energy, building automation, healthcare, retail, telecom, even an application layer to be used to build 3D glasses. So ZigBee is an open standard, crafted by everyone to do everything. But it is in the smart grid that future growth is most anticipated, comments In-Stat.

"ZigBee seems like a natural technology to funnel smart meter data back to the utility," says Norm Bogen, VP Digital Entertainment. "After all, ZigBee is already in the vast majority of smart meters that communicate with devices inside the home. The technology seems destined to mesh with other smart meters to carry the data back to the utility. The next sizable markets for ZigBee technology are home automation, driven by energy savings, and consumer lighting, due to the sheer number of lighting fixtures in the home and office."

Some of the findings by In-Stat includes:
Smart energy is the largest volume growth opportunity at this time
The US leads in market deployments of smart meters.
Hospital applications are focused on asset tracking and patient tracking.
The telcos and MSOs are looking at security systems as an area to build a new revenue stream.

The wireless semiconductor chip vendors and other players covered in In-Stat's report includes Ember, Freescale, Microchip, Google, NXP, Philips, and Texas Instruments