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Amazon to join Zigbee Alliance Board of Directors

The organization says the decision by Amazon to join its board is a strong message that the industry is focused on simplifying and adding convenience to the growing range of IoT devices available to customers.

“Customers tell us they want smart home experiences that are simple to setup, easy to control and add convenience to the tasks they do every day,” said Christian Taubman, director, Alexa Smart Home at Amazon, in a prepared statement. “Voice control with Alexa is helping remove the complexity of smart home, and there are even more ways we can help customers by ensuring their smart devices connect and work together seamlessly. We look forward to working with the Zigbee Alliance and its members to contribute to open standards for device interoperability that benefit our mutual customers.”

“As an industry, we need to move quickly to help consumers add new devices effortlessly, and ensure they are getting a great experience in the Internet of Things,” said Tobin Richardson, president and CEO, Zigbee Alliance. “We’re proud to be attracting the best tech companies on the planet, and Amazon joins an impressive lineup of other industry leaders and innovators on the board who work with the Zigbee Alliance’s open standards and community to deliver real value in the IoT.” 

The Zigbee Alliance says Amazon devices including the Echo Plus and new Echo Show feature a built-in smart home hub that easily connects to Zigbee-based light bulbs, door locks, sensors and more.

Mareca Hatler, principal analyst at ON World, said, “Our research projects Zigbee technology will ship in 85% of the 4.5 billion 802.15.4 units predicted to hit the market in 2023, and with Amazon as a board contributor in the Alliance, it’s clear the market-movers are really pulling together and operating on a global level to steer everyone forward.”