SAN RAMON, Calif. -- The ZigBee Alliance has ratified the first ZigBee™specification making the development and deployment of extremely power efficient, cost effective,low data rate monitoring, control and sensing networks a reality. This on-time delivery of thespecification is the culmination of two years of worldwide development and interoperability testingby the more than 100 member companies within the ZigBee Alliance.For those members that have already announced ZigBee-ready technology, the ratification of thespecification enables them to quickly enhance their products and begin testing to obtain ZigBeecompliantcertification. All Alliance members have complete and exclusive access to the finalspecification and will continue to participate in ongoing interoperability testing to verify that theirproducts are ZigBee-compliant.

"The announcement of the ZigBee specification is a major milestone in wireless networking," saidAndrew Wale, vice president of Business Development, Advance Transformer Company, ADivision of Philips Electronics North America Corporation. "ZigBee is poised to become theleading wireless technology for a myriad of uses ranging from building automation to industrialand residential applications. As a member of the Alliance, we have been following closely thedevelopment and ratification of the specification and look forward to bringing innovative newproducts to consumers using the ZigBee technology."

Now that the ZigBee specification has been ratified, the Alliance will continue to validate thespecification through expanded interoperability and scalability tests and future enhancements.The Alliance will actively promote the use of ZigBee-enabled technology in real-world applicationsto foster new, creative applications for the market, as well as to facilitate the broad marketadoption of the ZigBee standard around the world.

"The adoption of the ZigBee specification gives member companies the opportunity to capitalizeon this innovative technology for monitoring, sensing and control applications in residential andcommercial environments," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "We are excited toreach such a significant milestone in the development of the global ZigBee specification. Giventhe number of ZigBee-ready products announced in 2004, we anticipate seeing ZigBee-compliantconsumer products as soon as early-2005."

ZigBee Alliance