The ZigBee Alliance (www.zigbee.org) reached a major milestone recently with the immediate availability of the first group of ZigBee Certified Products. This comes as an answer to the global need for a variety of commercial and industrial sensor and control networks based on a globally recognized wireless networking standard. ZigBee offers two independent testing programs – ZigBee Compliant Platform (tests components used by OEMS to develop products) and ZigBee Certified Product.

Member companies earning ZigBee Certified Product status include MaxStream, NEC Engineering, S3C and Software Technologies Group.

The ZigBee Certified Product testing program offers OEMs and others, a process proving the robustness of their ZigBee products at testing facilities with known ZigBee network implementations.  Upon successful test completion, approved products earn the right to display the ZigBee logo.  The ZigBee logo signifies to consumers, business and industrial users that they can safely purchase ZigBee Certified Products and be assured of networking performance. 

“With the ZigBee Alliance’s focus on creating interoperability and proving the capabilities of ZigBee products via the ZigBee Certified Product testing program demonstrates why In-Stat believes ZigBee will be the dominant wireless mesh networking technology,” said Chris Kissel, In-Stat analyst. “In-Stat expects a river of ZigBee products to hit the market in the coming years not only because of the technology, but because the ZigBee Alliance is an open community actively promoting the technology.”

“ZigBee Certified Products answer a global need for a variety of commercial and industrial sensor and control networks based on a recognized wireless networking standard,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “In the coming year, we expect the availability of many more ZigBee Certified Products to exponentially increase and provide answers to a variety of needs such as energy management, m-commerce, building management, home convenience and security.  ZigBee is the only wireless technology in the market today designed with the lowest-power consumption rates and highest security, convenience and reliability.”