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Unless you know something I don't, I think you're completely incorrect on both counts. Z-Wave isn't going anywhere, just a few years ago the Z-Wave alliance pub
by manyxcxi 9y ago
Unless you know something I don't, I think you're completely incorrect on both counts. Z-Wave isn't going anywhere, just a few years ago the Z-Wave alliance published Z-Wave+ and more and more consumer devices have been coming to market. They're all over Home Depot (among other large retailers) and backed by very large brands [0]. All major hubs support it, and z-wave offers many specific technical and security advantages over WiFi with respect to automation.
Z-wave has a much smaller threat surface area and requires no internet. In fact, it requires no central controller at all, as you can have controllers in every room for scene automation. The internet connected hubs bring a lot of shiny features to the table, but they're completely unnecessary for local automation. Even better, communication forwarding is part of the design so you can have a controller hundreds of meters away from the thing you want controlled and as long as there are a couple of devices on the mesh between them it will work. We've seen how great WiFi repeaters are... plus WiFi on battery is basically a deal breaker, whereas you can have z-wave devices last two years on some AA batteries.
Z-Wave and Zigbee are both so much better than WiFi at automation that I can't even fathom why someone would suggest the opposite.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Wave https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Wave
- stingrae 9y agoI wouldn't say that it is getting replaced with wifi. But z-wave is definitely getting replaced by Zigbee, 6LoWPAN and Thread. (all of which aren't compatible with z-wave's proprietary hardware.) Also the entrance of the long awaited Bluetooth mesh, will have interesting effects on the market.
- barkerja 9y agoIs there any concern that Z-Wave and Zigbee could/will be reduced to nothing more than a tinkerers platform after both Apple and Google grab more of the market (both of which appear to be building systems backed by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth)?
- manyxcxi 9y agoI don't know if Apple is going to go anywhere with Homekit as it sounds (third hand reports) like it's more expensive to get products HomeKit ready over just using other protocols, or paying a license to Z-Wave or Zigbee. That being said, some combination of BT/LE/Mesh + WiFi and/or some other networking protocol would probably win very quickly if it wasn't encumbered with large licensing costs.
- barkerja 9y agoFair enough, but it does appear Apple is committed to HomeKit; this marks the third year in a row they've made major strides and improvements, with this year being the biggest in terms of licensing and implementation.
- payne92 9y agoHistory has not been kind to proprietary networking protocols, and it's winning at scale rarely about just technical advantages. I know they have opened up more in the past year or two, but it may be too late. I refine my comment to capture BTLE as one of the protocols going forward, in addition to wifi.
- manyxcxi 9y agoI'll grant you BTLE and/or something more open ascending over Z-Wave or Zigbee, but I've got to imagine that's years out. If I was picking something for the next 5 years I'd still pick Z-Wave over the WiFi IoT horror show.
- sdague 9y agoAlso, there is a lot of inertia in the home automation space. Hue is all Zigbee, and is one of the biggest off the shelf IoT platforms right now. The door lock space is mostly z-wave. Friends that I have that have a mix of these things are more and more putting their energy into z-wave as it's far more reliable than wifi, having the advantages of the mesh network, and living in a non crowded spectrum.
- mrb 9y agoIf market forces play out logically, Z-wave should lose out to any of: Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth mesh, or 802.11ah (HaLow). Z-wave is a proprietary protocol. Only 1 company has the IP & monopoly on manufacturing Z-wave chips... By contrast, any of these other techs are open and have multiple implementations available from multiple manufacturers.