Figure 1 forecasts ZigBee 802.15.4 node shipments by region (2005-2011).

According to ABI Research, ZigBee should start finding significant adoption in commercial building applications in 2008. Commercial buildings represent a huge addressable market of field equipment currently using wired field buses to connect sensors and actuators with lighting, heating, ventilation, access control, and safety systems. ZigBee’s features and functionality are very well suited to commercial building applications.

Of the five top vendors of BAS, which together control about 70% of the market, four — Johnson Controls, Siemens, TAC, and Trane — have introduced wireless products based on ZigBee in the past year, and the fifth — Honeywell — is moving toward doing so.