A new study from Frost and Sullivan indicates that sales of ultrawideband (UWB) and ZigBee chipsets will increase significantly over the next three years.
I can't help but be a bit skeptical over this new research. We've seen over the past couple of years the turf war over the definition of a single standard for UWB, and that effort fell right on its face. Plus, we were supposed to see a slew of products being released over the course of this year, including those dealing with home entertainment. So far, we haven't seen anything yet. To be fair, we do have a few months left in the year and the holiday shopping season around the corner, so there is still time left for this wireless technology to make some sort of impact on the marketplace.
With regard to ZigBee, it definitely is finding a niche in the home automation market, especially in the security/alarm sector. It doesn't appear that ZigBee will ever become a "hit" like Bluetooth, but if it can find a couple of strong niches to park itself in, that will be just fine for its supporters.
