Ultimately, we wanted to make sure our product was easy for everyone to use, which is a key reason why we made the switch from ZigBee to WIFI. This decision has allowed us to create a more user-friendly product that is also easier than ever before to set up.
Although ZigBee does have its benefits, it is not very common or easy to understand for the everyday consumer. WIFI, on the other hand, is much easier to understand, has become a norm in the Smart Home (thanks to the rise of various smart assistants), and has gone through many exciting developments in the last few years.
In this article, I’ll dive a bit deeper into the key reasons we chose to make the switch from ZigBee to WiFi when developing our 2nd generation smartshades device.
WIFI Is Easier To Understand, Setup, & Use
WIFI has become an extremely common technology in everyone’s homes and phones over the last few years. Everyone and their grandma is familiar with what it is, what you can do with it, how to set it up, and how to use it.
The rise in popularity of smart speakers and smart assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home has really pushed the capabilities of WiFi and proven that this technology can work in the smart home world in an extremely user-friendly way.
Technologies like ZigBee and Z-Wave are much harder to set up and understand in comparison. Where they excel in adding more power and automation, they fall in terms of complication and ease-of-use. You also get locked into using that technology and become limited to choosing devices that are compatible.
For the smart home to become standard, the entire experience (from set up to use) needs to be simple, familiar, and enjoyable. WIFI checks all those boxes.
WIFI Is Becoming More Popular In The Smart Home
In 2021, there is a WIFI product variation for every ZigBee or Z-Wave smart home product, and we can definitely again thank Google and Alexa for that.
Today’s smart home shopper is looking for a Google or Alexa integration in every product they select, and this means WIFI compatibility is everywhere now because it makes for an easy path to that kind of integration.
In fact, it would be almost shocking to see a product without a Google or Alexa integration available. This is why it is now so common to see WIFI-compatible smart bulbs, smart switches, smart locks, smart thermostats, and more.
WIFI has become such a growing standard that new ZigBee or Z-Wave hubs and products are being announced less frequently, showing that the smart home industry at large is also adapting towards this trend of WIFI being the communication protocol of choice.
ZigBee Is Too Expensive
To realize our vision of having a SmartShade in every home, we completely understand that we need to keep prices as low as possible to reduce the barrier to entry. This is even more important with a product that introduces a new concept like ours does.
Due to their wide availability, WIFI chips and components can cost less than Z-Wave and ZigBee chips and components do. You’ll notice this yourself when you compare other smart home products that have WIFI and ZigBee variations.
Reducing the price of our 2nd generation product was a high priority for both the business and engineering teams at RYSE, and this is a key reason we decided to go with WIFI.
WIFI Is Exciting
WIFI is exciting due to the great features it helps us unlock in our products as well as in the way that it is making the smart home accessible and easy to get into for more and more consumers.
The fact that WIFI is everywhere and is so easy to understand makes it the perfect candidate to be a standard communication in an industry that has so desperately been in need of a standard.
With that said, WIFI does have some downsides when compared to ZigBee. These are mostly in terms of speed and power consumption. However, these things are changing as WIFI continues to be improved and developers continue to work with the technology.
This makes WIFI an exciting technology to work with today in addition to having a bright future, which makes it a perfect pairing for RYSE products.
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Our vision is to put an RYSE product on every window shade. We want people to think of RYSE when they think of smart shades.
RYSE SmartShade, being an automated solution, just makes life easier – everything is done for you, so you can maintain a comfortable lifestyle. For example, you can have your shades open every morning at 8 AM to help you wake up and allow that morning light to brighten up your morning. Or, if you’re sitting on the sofa for an afternoon movie, you can easily tell Google or Alexa to lower the shades to prevent glare. It just makes life more comfortable and easy.
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