New smart home platform drives battery-powered IoT device trend

Silicon Labs launches the next-generation Z-Wave 700 on the Wireless Gecko platform, the industry’s most comprehensive hardware and software connectivity solution for the IoT. Z-Wave 700 delivers on the company's vision and platform integration roadmap following the company’s strategic acquisition of Z-Wave technology. The new smart home platform strengthens on Z-Wave’s industry-leading S2 security and interoperability by advancing energy efficiency and adding higher performance, longer range RF capabilities. By leveraging the Gecko platform, Z-Wave 700 allows developers to produce new classes of smaller, more intelligent smart home devices at a lower cost and faster time-to-market. “With the worldwide smart home market expected to grow to 1.3 billion devices shipped annually by 2022, much of that adoption and growth will be driven by sensors that enable AI and edge computing applications, which can deliver smart experiences in new verticals such as security, aging-in-place, energy, voice control and insurance,” said Adam Wright, IDC senior analyst, Consumer IoT. “Advances in wireless technology, such as Z-Wave 700, are driving the battery-powered sensor trend and making these devices easier to install and deploy.” “We have built the groundbreaking Z-Wave 700 platform with an eye to the future and an ear to our ecosystem partners who can deploy this long-range, low-power and future-proof platform for their new smart home applications,” said Raoul Wijgergangs, vice president and general manager of Z-Wave for Silicon Labs. “Developers can now take advantage of the advanced platform features combined with Z-Wave’s renowned interoperability, industry-leading S2 security and SmartStart installation.”