That is a very good point.NeverDie said:802.15.4 will do well regardless of whether Zigbee does or not.
This is the double-edged sword with any of these wireless technologies. Users want interoperability so they have lots of choices and competition decreases the prices. Manufacturers don't want interoperability so that you are locked into their products, and they benefit. The good news is that with Zigbee, both modes are supported. If you want interoperability, then fully support the Zigbee Home Automation profile, and all your devices are interoperable. If your company DOESN'T want that like the route Control4 went, than you can build your own stack, but still benefit from low hardware costs due to high volumes. Zigbee was also designed with the help of MANY companies, so many in that it had to be flexible to have the capability to do almost everything for everyone. The profiles let it perform medical applications and industrial as good as it can do home automation.Automate said:@NeverDie
I agree. Zigbee has been around longer than Z-wave but If Zigbee can't get the vendors to work toward better interoperability then some other protocol such as 6LoWPAN which uses 802.15.4 with IPv6 may fill the void.
Z-Wave is just the opposite. Its controlled by one company, so if you want to use the technology you have to license it. This limits the ultimate volume of chips and keeps the costs high, but on the flip-side, everything works together, by definition. It was also designed for one purpose, and by the nature of business, they had to rush the product out to stay in business. If they designed it for too extensively, the company would be out of business before its first products made it out.
I have nothing against Z-Wave, but I think in the long-run Zigbee is the way to go, although it won't happen overnight.
If you haven't seen the Zigbee Home Automation products from this company, take a look. (I am not related to this company in any way.) I have ordered and used their products and they work well.
http://www.simplehomenet.com