By certifying to Zigbee and connecting the humble light bulb to the Internet, the Philips Hue personal lighting system has helped usher in widespread adoption of the smart home. Hue is able to reward consumers with a friendly, easy experience as they take their first smart home steps, and encourage users to continue down that path as they connect their Hue lighting to new applications, connected products and platforms.
In this interview, George Yianni, Head of Technology for Philips Lighting Home Systems and one of the founders of the Hue product line, shares Philips Lighting’s insights into how to develop Internet of Things (IoT) products that consumers will embrace, and the importance of working with open standards to achieve success in the IoT.
Yianni speaks to the reasons Philips Lighting chose Zigbee to enable the Hue platform, and how that choice continues to drive new consumer value and business opportunities today. These include:
Ease of use. Zigbee makes it easy for consumers to set up Hue products whether they’re starting out with just a bulb and switch, or a more fully-featured system with a number of devices connected to a Hue hub.
Reliability. Zigbee’s mesh network provides coverage across the home, giving Hue users a reliable experience without them having to worry about range, repeaters, or any other infrastructure.
Robust supply chain. Zigbee is an open standard supported by a global ecosystem of suppliers. This diversity drives innovation that enables Hue to offer new value to their users, and ensures Philips Lighting’s supply chain flexibility and security.
Openness. The Zigbee Alliance is a global standards body, open to members from across the IoT. This gives Philips Lighting the ability to participate and influence Zigbee’s evolution, ensuring it continues to meet Philips Lighting’s and their customers’ needs.
Interoperability. Zigbee’s core value is interoperability across vendors. Years after its launch, Hue products continue to work with existing and new platforms. This unlocks new business opportunities and gives them the freedom to work with the best players in the market, like the new Amazon Echo Plus which has introduced Hue, and the smart home, to a whole new wave of customers.
Watch the interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKEIGWorXC8
Interested in watching the full interview? Click here.
Read the simplified Chinese version of the blog here.