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Is Zigbee the Next Bluetooth?

Posted by Cliff on from the rise-or-fall-of-another-wireless-technology dept.

bz asks: "I work for a small product development company that is considering the use of RF. Naturally, it seems that it would be easier to use a proprietary protocol rather than some of the standards on the market. We are restricted by small code space and low power. The Zigbee protocol needs more memory than we would like to give up. Naturally, if Zigbee is going to become ubiquitous, we would like to sacrifice the extra memory and jump on the bandwagon. However, if it is only going to be as popular as Bluetooth, we would prefer to pass. Is Zigbee going to succeed, or is it likely to follow along the low road that Bluetooth has already paved?"

4 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Why does it matter? by Anonymous+Cumshot · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Why does it matter whether or not Zigbee "becomes" popular? If it works for you, use it.

    And you speak as if Bluetooth didn't succeed at all.

    Is this a joke article?

    --
    Best regards, A.C.
    1. Re:Why does it matter? by lexarius · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A lot of Mac systems come with built-in bluetooth standard or optional, and Apple's own wireless mice and keyboards use it. When I visit home, my sister bugs me to download her cellphone pictures using my Powerbook's bluetooth because she doesn't have a bluetooth card herself and (reasonably) doesn't want to pay for the transfer service. She asked for a bluetooth adapter for Christmas.
      That's my experience, anyway.

  2. Naturally? by forsetti · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe I just don't undertand the electronics market, but why is it " ...easier to use a proprietary protocol rather than some of the standards on the market"?

    Wouldn't it be easier to use a field-tested protocol, like Bluetooth, which already has oodles of cell phones and gadgets to attach to my PC?

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    10b||~10b -- aah, what a question!
  3. Re:No way by zeenixus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    interesting. i'm involved with a project right now which is based around moving "tags", if you will. We are fairly sure zigbee (or something quite similar) is the way to go, and have spoken with multiple companies whose engineers think this is doable with a little coding.

    we're not in need of realtime data, a few minutes between samplings will do, but we do have a rather high tag number (thousands) requirement.

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    In Bob we trust.