The Zigbee Alliance, an organization of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and delivering open global standards for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced its organizational rebrand to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). The organization announced a second brand, Matter, formerly known to the industry as Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), the future of reliable connectivity. The newly developed Matter mark will serve as a seal of approval, assuring that any object built on this standard is reliable by nature, secure by design, and compatible at scale. The Alliance will continue to develop Zigbee technology and will retain the Zigbee technology brand.
With nearly 20 years operating as a global, open standards organization, the Alliance has continued to expand in scale, scope and impact. From the Alliance’s founding technology, Zigbee, to its most recent IP-based standard, Matter, the Alliance has been on a mission to simplify and harmonize the IoT. Matter joins the Alliance’s growing portfolio of leading connectivity standards, including specialized protocols like Smart Energy, Green Power, rf4ce, and others. The Alliance’s technologies are built on solid foundations: openness principles, a common data model, and the expertise of Member companies from across the industry. With this, the Alliance is elevating its brand identity to better align with this role in shaping the future of the IoT by creating world-wide standards that impact the market.
The new Alliance visual identity includes a unique ligature in the new monogram, which represents not just the connectivity powered by the Alliance protocols, but the coming together of individual companies that make up the Alliance. With a personalized set of over 100 ligatures, the brand celebrates the unique connection between the Alliance Members and the connection Alliance technologies enable. The new brand color palette of blue and ivory is an updated reference to the visual lexicon of blueprints, reflecting the Connectivity Standards Alliance’s role in developing foundational connectivity standards. Representing the role the Alliance continues to play in bringing together the industry, the “superconnector” is an added visual element that links concepts, people, and themes throughout their brand applications and communications.
Tobin Richardson, President and CEO of the Connectivity Standards Alliance said that this year is historic for the Alliance as their growth and efforts flourish with the demand for smart homes and building connectivity. He said that it’s the perfect time to both unveil the Alliance’s new brand, positioning them as the home for collaboration and development of IoT standards with their Members, and launch these trusted marks recognizable by the market they collectively serve.
The Alliance’s momentum has been incredible, and 2020 was a record-breaking year with more than 560 Zigbee technology devices certified, an increase of over 30 percent from the year prior. Over half a billion Zigbee chipsets have been sold and nearly four billion are expected to ship by 2023. Consumer and commercial demands for simple, connected experiences continue to grow, as Q1 2021 certifications exceeded Q1 2020 by more than 50 percent. With the ongoing evolution of the Zigbee standard, and device certifications further increasing with the addition of Matter devices later in 2021, we expect this positive trend to continue.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance’s membership continues to expand its global reach as the leading organization at the center of the IoT, with Members in over 37 countries. CSA Members come together from across the value chain - silicon, software, device, ecosystem, service provider and retail - and from across the connected home, commercial and multiple industry domains.
There are now more than 350 Member organizations of all sizes, across a range of business categories, and over 3,000 Member individuals who are participating in bringing use cases, specifications, reference implementations, testing tools and certification programs to life.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance has partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Council on the Connected World on an impactful new initiative to help build a globally connected future that is more sustainable, resilient, and equitable for all. The Alliance is proud to have a seat on the Council on the Connected World to strengthen global governance and innovation of IoT.
These connections aren’t just unique to planet Earth, as recently the world saw Zigbee even on Mars. The Alliance Members have accomplished wondrous wireless possibilities over the decades and they were excited to have an organization like Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) choose Zigbee for their mission-critical radio communications from Ingenuity to Perseverance this year.
