Question: How is WirelessUSB technology different from Zigbee?
Answer: Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4) is a standard that has grown out of the HomeRF working group, with backers like: Honeywell, Phillips & Motorola. Several Solutions have been announced, and all are geared towards a broader product category than HID, targeting home automation, HID and toys. This inherently presents problems for trying to create a wireless system that meets all the needs for a wireless HID device. Also Zigbee does not share a common band for all of its implementations, which makes the possibility of interpretability across the standard difficult. The use of 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz works against what we are trying to achieve for our customers, which is band unification to simplify order and SKU management for worldwide shipments. Additionally, the Zigbee Alliance is expecting fully complete modules to cost in excess of $6.00 at introduction, something the HID market cannot support. WirelessUSB does not need a module, and the entire BOM for a WirelessUSB solution will be below $5.00 (in 100K quantities) at the time of launch.
