Eaton has been a Participant-level member of the ZigBee Alliance since the alliance's inception in 2002. As a key early member of the alliance, Eaton provided valuable input into the development of the ZigBee standard. Eaton was showcased in ZigBee's recent white paper "Vision for the Home," which details Eaton's recently launched and ZigBee-based new home awareness product segment. The paper outlines Eaton's decision to use the open ZigBee standard because it increases the value of their Home Heartbeat product line, as well as the company's other wireless sensor applications.
"Eaton believes that ZigBee technology offers a number of new product and revenue opportunities while offering consumers a variety of convenience, safety, and security tools they never dreamed of before," said John A. Wafer, Vice President and Technology Officer, Electrical Group, Eaton Corp. "Today, consumers using our award-winning Home Heartbeat line of home control products are seeing the benefits and convenience of wireless technology."
ZigBee already offers the largest selection and most robust supply chain of any wireless control technology, with numerous compliant platforms. OEMs are actively selling end-user products based on ZigBee for the medical, automated meter reading, and marine safety markets. In the home control market, ZigBee is the technology of choice for a variety of leading OEM companies largely because the alliance is a thriving ecosystem using a true standards-based approach. Open standards allow OEMs to avoid developing proprietary technology or being dependent on the financial solvency of a single company.
"This board addition demonstrates the alliance's strength and dedication to growing ZigBee dominance in the wireless home control marketplace," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "Only ZigBee fosters the development of interoperable third-party sensors and devices to keep the market vibrant and interesting to consumers. Plus, with widespread ZigBee adoption, costs for common components like radios continue to decline and thereby fuel the overall development of interoperable products."
Eaton joins Ember, Freescale Semiconductor, Honeywell, Huawei Technologies, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola, Philips, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Siemens, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments on the ZigBee Alliance Board of Directors.
About Eaton
Eaton Corp. is a diversified industrial manufacturer with 2005 sales of $11.1 billion. Eaton is a global leader in electrical systems and components for power quality; distribution and control; fluid power systems and services for industrial, mobile, and aircraft equipment; intelligent truck drivetrain systems for safety and fuel economy; and automotive engine air management systems, powertrain solutions, and specialty controls for performance, fuel economy, and safety. Eaton has 60,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 125 countries.
ZigBee: Wireless Control That Simply Works
The ZigBee Alliance is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost effective, low-power, wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. The ZigBee Alliance membership comprises technology providers and original equipment manufacturers worldwide. Membership is open to all. Additional information can be found on the alliance's Web site.