Smart Home Tech Developer Ezlo Innovation Joins the Zigbee Alliance
Internet of Things device developer Ezlo Innovation has joined the Zigbee Alliance. The move will incorporate support for Zigbee’s protocol into Ezlo’s array of smart home devices.
Smart Option for Smart Home Devices
The Zigbee protocol is already one of the most popular choices for IoT devices due to its extended range in a mesh network and the relatively low cost in power and components required to include it in a product. Zigbee has also earned a reputation for reliability since the Alliance formed in 2002. It has since attracted close to 300 members.
By getting involved with the Zigbee Alliance, Ezlo has made sure that its devices will be compatible with a significant chunk of the IoT industry. At this point in the company’s history, that’s an especially crucial consideration. The New Jersey-based Ezlo just debuted its new PlugHub Energy and Atom smart home hubs and recently acquired smart device developer Centralite, adding to the cluster of brands it owns, including FortrezZ, MiOS, and Vera.
“Our brand promise is that we’ll work with everything,” Ezlo Innovation CEO Mark Samuel said in a statement. “The user experience is paramount. From onboarding to device setup, everything should be simple. For the industry at large, that’s not currently the case, but our partnership with the Zigbee Alliance is an important step forward in our goal of having things work well together regardless of the underlying technology.”
Zigbee Future
Ezlo’s decision to join the Zigbee Alliance may also be about more than just the company’s development. The Alliance struck a deal with Apple, Google, and Amazon to begin work on a new standard for smart home technology. Project Connect Home over IP aims to design and build a secure connectivity system that every smart home developer can adopt without paying a royalty. All of the partners are going to share some of their smart home technology to advance the open-source project. But, even with the result available to any developer, it’s likely that the companies involved in setting the standard will have a leg up. Ezlo may recognize that and want to be in the best position possible for when that new standard emerges.
“Markets are converging, and now is the time for organizations to work alongside each other to shape the future of the IoT,” Zigbee Alliance marketing director Ann Olivo-Shaw. said in a statement. “This next year will be pivotal, and the Alliance is always improving and building on existing application areas.”
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