The Zigbee Alliance, has announced that findings from market research firm ON World project an extremely favourable market for connected devices leveraging Zigbee Alliance technologies over the next five years. ON World – whose experts provide global business intelligence on the IoT – confirmed that half a billion Zigbee chipsets have been sold to date. Their analysts predict that 802.15.4 mesh chipset sales will skyrocket to 4.5 billion by 2023 with the majority of those being based on Zigbee Alliance technology standards.

The firm’s most recent research findings, says that Zigbee is the leading IoT connectivity technology for the smart home. Estimates state Zigbee Alliance technologies will account for 3.8 billion (85%) of the 4.5 billion IEEE 802.15.4 units projected to ship by 2023.

“ON World has closely followed the IEEE 802.15.4 category for the past 15 years and has tracked Zigbee technology since before its flagship specification was ratified in December 2004,” said Mareca Hatler, principal analyst at ON World. “Since then, our team has conducted extensive, year-round primary research on wireless sensing, tracking and control in dozens of ecosystems – interviewing and surveying thousands of companies of all sizes across the entire value chain. Our findings indicate Zigbee leads the wireless mesh sensor network market and will continue to do so.”

Key points and projections from the report include:

  • Half a billion Zigbee chips have been sold to date.
  • By 2023, 1 billion Zigbee chips will ship annually worldwide.
  • By 2023, 4.5 billion cumulative IEEE 802.15.4 mesh devices will be sold worldwide – and 85% of those will use Zigbee Alliance standards.
  • Today, Zigbee makes up more than one-third of the smart home Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) chipset market.
  • Zigbee is the leading IoT connectivity technology for the smart home.


“ON World’s projections validate the success we’ve been experiencing behind the scenes as we work with hundreds of innovative companies and developers to design and market Zigbee-based mesh products,” said Katie Gengler, Head of Marketing for the Zigbee Alliance. “2018 is already on track for a record year for Zigbee certifications, and to date the Alliance has qualified thousands of different smart product types that are part of today’s most popular and thriving IoT ecosystems, including those from Amazon, Comcast, Huawei, IKEA, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), SOMFY, and Samsung SmartThings.”